Broken Prophecies
by GraffitiRythm
Summary: The Oracle had promised a new future, but a caged creature would say anything to obtain its freedom. The battle lost, will the Storm Hawks accept their fate? Primarly a Stork and Aerrow-centric story; no slash.
1. Chapter 1: Captured

_Well, this is my first attempt at fan fiction of any kind, but the Storm Hawks universe and characters were just too difficult to ignore any further!_

_This story is mostly a reaction to the Forbidden City episode, and the Oracle's prophecy and promise, something that intrigued me and I've been hoping they'd touch on again. In the meantime I decided to have a little fun with the idea (fun meaning... well, me being cruel for the most part)._

_This story will mostly center around Aerrow and Stork as the prominent characters and occasional narrators (no slash), and may feature some pairings later on, depending on how this all develops._

_And that is that... reviews are welcome! Let's get started, shall we?_

--

**Chapter 1 - Captured**

I'll never forgive myself. _Never._

I know never is a long time. Never is eternal. But eternity still doesn't feel like long enough when I think of what I've done. What resulted from one incredibly stupid mistake.

There was a time when I thought age didn't matter. We were young, but we also didn't care. I thought myself equal to or better than any foe I came up against. I laughed at them and delighted in all of our seemingly easy wins when everything was fun and games with no real consequences. A child's game of war. Sure, we believed we were fighting the good fight. We believed, and we really were devoted to the cause. We were fighting for a reason and there's no denying that we had talent.

But we were still kids.

And in that mindset I'd been naive enough to believe her. Maybe if I'd been older, more experienced... maybe if I'd earned my status as one of the legendary Storm Hawks instead of pretending my genetics empowered me with something inherently amazing; maybe then I wouldn't have been so reckless.

The Oracle. The Forbidden City. We shouldn't have even been there, but our curiousity and our greed got the better of us. We were lucky to have escaped with our lives, all things considered. But I'd just had to know.

Maybe if I'd been wiser in my years I would have realized that it was too easy. It was all far too simple. Release her and the future would change? She showed me the future, and it was something I just couldn't bear to imagine. I couldn't allow it to happen. And in that moment of horror she'd offered me a resolution.

Free her, and it would all change.

I should have known that a caged creature would have said anything to gain its freedom. I didn't ask _why_ she was confined there. I didn't ask _how_ the future would change. I didn't even ask the questions my squadron had told me to ask. I was so set on banishing that imagery from my mind. I fell for it. I freed that monster.

But the future never changed.

OoOoO

Aerrow roused from his daydreaming at the sudden shuddering of the cruiser's hull. Talons were grouping around them and facing the loading door. His eyes shot to Piper, who was half-standing in anticipation of something he couldn't see from his seated position between Junko and Finn.

"Piper?" He tried to keep his voice low, but the roar of the engines drowned him out as a result. Still, she had turned and seen that he was looking at her.

"I think we've landed," she said in a hiss.

"Already?"

The amber-eyed young woman sat at the end of the bench. Her shackles, which connected Piper by chains to the others, prevented her from getting too close to Aerrow without dragging Stork along with her, and he was firmly planted and lost in his own thoughts at the end of the line. Instead, she whispered something into Junko's ear. The Wallop nodded with understanding and leaned toward the Sky Knight.

"Piper thinks they're baking us doughnuts."

Piper smacked her face and yanked Junko back her way, clarifying what she'd said.

"Oh!" Junko nodded again and then relayed the new message: "Piper doesn't think they're taking us to Cycloni--aww," he turned sad eyes on his female teammate again, "no doughnuts?"

"Sorry, Junko." She smiled sadly. "I don't think we'll be getting any doughnuts on this trip."

Aerrow frowned at this information. He'd expected that Master Cyclonis and the Dark Ace would want to gloat in their capture, keeping the Storm Hawks as close as possible should they try anything; but they'd definitely not been flying long enough to have made it to Cyclonia. Aerrow also considered the possibility that he and his friends would be locked back up on Terra Zartacla, but after the first prison break, how likely would they be to risk another?

Well, they were Cyclonians, after all. They didn't have a long-standing reputation for planning ahead.

"Dude, my wrists are _killing_ me. How much longer do we have to wear these things?"

Aerrow turned to Finn and offered a shrug. The blonde bowed his head and mumbled quietly to himself whilst fidgeting against the manacles. At about the same time, the engines finally powered down and the prisoners were left with only the sound of a few dozen Talons and whatever it was a few dozen Talons chatted about.

Piper was straining against her bonds to see the doors when they opened. With terras being one subject of Piper's limitless knowledge bank, Aerrow suspected she'd need only see the first hint of the environment that awaited them to know exactly where they were.

"What if they're dumping us in the Wastelands?"

Piper swiveled back with a mixed look of annoyance and horror. "Finn, don't _say_ that!" But now that the seed of thought had been planted, Piper couldn't help but shudder at the possibility. Before she could try and comfort a now whimpering Junko, she was forced roughly back down into her seat.

"Wait your turn, girly."

Both Junko and Radarr growled at the manhandling of their friend. Their captors merely responded with mocking laughter.

One of the larger Talons stepped forward, brandishing his stave. "You think you're tough now, but just you wait for what's in store!"

Aerrow's eyes darkened. "My thoughts exactly."

"Don't, Aerrow," Piper gave him a warning with her eyes. Now was not the time.

"Listen to her, Red," the Talon jeered and disappeared back into the midst of anonymous minions.

A double line had formed in the middle of the hold, and marching between came a procession of other shackled prisoners. They were kept perfectly in step for fear of falling victim to the Cyclonian's weapons, which were all sporting recently-enhanced firebolt crystals. But these initial lines were only civilian rebels. Behind them came the first of the captured Sky Knight Squadrons.

Aerrow felt his stomach flip. Harrier of the Rex Guardians was at the front of the line, a now crushed and hopeless person with his head hung low. He was in the company of only one of his teammates; Aerrow recognized him as the pilot that had squared off against Stork. Behind them were the remenants of the Absolute Zeroes: Suzi-Lu and two of her boys. The parade of defeat continued with the Rebel Ducks, the Screaming Queens, the Third Degree Burners, and a number of other participants in that final battle that was supposed to end it all.

To his horror he noted that no team was complete. Each had suffered a loss. It appeared that only the Storm Hawks still remained in one piece, though each of them had a number of minor injuries (or in Stork's case: 'minor injuries that will soon become infected and gangrenous').

"You're up, Thunder Birds."

Aerrow was coerced into standing with a jab to his side. "We're the Storm Hawks, asshole."

Finn cracked a nervous smile when Aerrow's comment went unheard. The sharpshooter was pulled into step behind the previous line and the other Storm Hawks did their best to keep up. With their hands and feet attached to both the person in front and back of them, it required a certain finesse.

"Finn, not so fast--ouch! Careful, Junko."

"Sorry."

There came a yelp and a thump from the end of the line as Stork was pulled clear from his seat and landed on the metal floor. The Merb had been exceptionally still and quiet since their capture, having not spoken a word after they boarded the Cyclonian cruiser. Aerrow couldn't help but glare at their pilot, and Stork was more than aware of it. His part in the final battle had not been the most heroic; in fact, the Merb was sure if it weren't for him they might have evaded all of this.

Piper knelt down and did her best to help him up, despite still being pulled to walk with the procession.

"Are you all right?" she whispered, trying in vain to glance over her shoulder at him and walk with shackled ankles at the same time.

Stork gave her a weary nod, though Piper knew he was blaming himself for what happened. Maybe even moreso than Aerrow, who was already prone to beating himself up over any little failure.

And this was, she was forced to admit, a pretty colossal failure for the Storm Hawks.

The ship groaned and the sharp sound of heavy latches coming loose echoed back through the hold. White light broke through the outline of the massive loading door as it slowly creaked its way open. Piper tried in vain to see through the throng of Talons and fellow prisoners, but they were at the back of the line and she was far from being the tallest person there.

"Does it matter...?"

She turned back to Stork again, a little easier this time as the line had slowed. "Does what matter, Stork?"

"Does it matter where we are? We're doomed regardless." He wasn't bothering to look at her. His eyes were fixed on his feet. "Look around, Piper."

She winced, but that didn't stop her from continuing her efforts to see the outside of the ship. She turned away from him again, putting her hand on Junko's shoulder and trying to jump before quickly thinking better of it.

"We've never let doom get in our way before," she grumbled, "Now, on my count, we're all going to jump."

Stork quirked an eyebrow. "J-jump?"

"Yes. Junko, tell Aerrow and Finn. On the count of three, okay? You'll count with me, all right?"

Junko smiled, relieved to have something to keep his mind and body occupied, if only for a few seconds. "All right, Piper. I'm ready!"

"Okay. Here we go. One, two..."

The Wallop spoke alongside her. With Junko's huge form ahead of her she could barely make out Finn and Aerrow (who had a chained Radarr on his shoulder), but hoped they were paying attention.

"And, three!--_ACK!_"

Finn, Aerrow, Junko, and Piper had jumped on cue, but Stork had still been debating the idea. The force of the four of them leaping together had given Piper a brief glimpse of the door, but Stork's lack of contribution had put them off balance on the landing and they'd collectively fallen to one side, taking out three Talons in the process. Immediately there was an uproar.

"Stop them!"

"They're trying to escape!"

"They're _jumping in unison!_"

Junko pulled Aerrow to his feet as a mob of Talons descended on them. Finn shouted in protest as he received an elbow to the gut and Aerrow was smacked over the head with a stave in turn. Junko and Piper were forcefully shoved back into place and Stork, whose ankle had been twisted by the jumping he'd failed to take part in, was zapped painfully onto his feet by a firebolt crystal.

The rear guard gave Stork and Piper an extra shove for emphasis. "Try that again and we'll use you for fuel."

Piper shot Stork an exasperated expression, which he might have been able to shrug off. Aerrow's renewed glaring, however, wasn't so easy to ignore...

"Thanks, Stork. Real helpful there, buddy." The red-head was clearly trying to say this under his breath, but Merbs had excellent hearing. Stork grimaced once again at his own incompetence.

"It's fine," Piper breathed, "It still worked. I know where we are."

"_Where?_" Junko and Aerrow both turned together and nearly sent them all tumbling again.

Piper flinched. "We're on Terra Thar."

Finn continued his leading of the group, clutching his stomach. "Never heard of it."

"That's because it's been deserted for decades," Piper began, feeling almost as though she was on the bridge of the Condor reading from one of her books, with the exception that she was not generally in shackles on the Condor. "Ages ago Terra Thar was ground zero for some of the most competitive teams of crystal excavators. Some of the rarest crystals in the Atmos were found here. But the terra was picked clean. The climate was hot and harsh, so no one had any reason to return."

Finn blinked. "You guessed where we were from half a second of jumping?"

"Eh, when you're good, you're good." Piper smiled.

Aerrow lifted his head. "Okay, so why would they bring us here?"

"Desolate landscape... punishing climate... lack of natural resources..." Stork groaned and tried to ignore the pain in his ankle. "And no one comes here anymore. Who needs a prison when the terra can do the work for you?"

Piper didn't want to admit that he had a point. Aerrow was even more reluctant to approve of Stork's theory, but only because he didn't feel like approving of Stork right now, period.

They finally managed to reach the doors and shuffle slowly down the ramp onto Terra Thar's hot, sandy ground, so deeply red in colour that it could almost be mistaken for blood. Bordering the ramp were a few scattered trees with sparse purple leaves and mounds of flat rock stacked in natural little towers; the sky was a very light mauve, cloudless and rippling in the heat of the sun. Finn came to an abrupt stop and the others had no choice but to do the same.

"Uh, you may be wrong about this place, Stork."

Piper leaned to the side. "Wrong?"

"Yeah." Finn swallowed nervously. "'Cause there's definitely a prison here."

The lines of other squadrons ahead of them were filed off in different directions, offering a full view of what awaited every prisoner here. Radarr whimpered and Piper gasped audibly at the sight.

"We have to go in... _there?_" Junko pointed to the rocky, triangular structure ahead of them. It towered a good five-hundred feet, if not higher; each story acting as an individual step in the pyramid design, and every floor lined with bars on all sides. Every level was also circled by Talons brandishing weapons with strange orange crystals.

"At least we'll get a cell with a view... a-am I right?" Finn offered, though whatever humour had been attempted in that comment was overshadowed by dread.

Stork lifted his head to survey the area, and immediately wished he hadn't. Yellow eyes struggled to take in the unreal situation. His voice wavering, he muttered: "Do we really want a view... of that?"

The Storm Hawks followed his gaze. Opposite the pyramid prison was a huge cave with a track leading out of it. Disheveled workers were pushing carts of rock and dirt out of the cave and dumping the contents into a neighbouring pit. The pit itself was just one end of a massive quarry filled with even more working prisoners. Empty carts were making their way back into the cave, the creaking wheels offering a background symphony to the beat of picks and shovels.

Aerrow supressed a shudder. Piper was watching the carts with interest. At first she couldn't be sure; it looked like nothing but dark red dirt for the most part. But, yes, a shimmer of light. In one of every few of the carts that came out, she could see them glittering through.

"They're mining crystals!"

Both Finn and Radarr jerked at the sudden outburst.

"But I thought you said the crystals were gone?" Junko would have scratched his noggin' were he able to reach it.

Piper was only half-aware of Junko's question, her mind occupied with guessing the types of crystals the workers were extracting. Eventually her eyes moved back to him, still waiting patiently for a response. "Oh, well, I can't say for sure. I don't think they ever mined this deep..." she frowned.

"I don't get it," Finn interjected, "They're mining crystals, right? Why don't they just use them to escape? Look, right there, that Wallop's got at least three Strikers in that heap of dirt."

Piper started to answer, but they'd been forced into walking again. The other squadrons had been led into the prison and it was now their turn. She kept her voice as low as she could for Finn to still be able to hear her. "The crystals don't look as bright as they should. They must be blocking them."

Stork didn't care about crystals. He'd noticed something else entirely. The longer he watched, the more he was certain that he was right. Every worker pushing carts, picking at the rock, shoveling dirt, falling over from the heat... they all had one thing in common. His eye twitched.

None of them were human.

"Oh, this isn't going to end well."

"What's that, Stork?"

He looked up at Piper's worried face, and then past her to the first step of the pyramid. The prison was already filled to bursting on these larger, lower levels. As they entered through the base of the structure, the light vanished and their eyes struggled to adjust, but there was no missing the smell. Stork reeled, his heart suddenly accelerating. He could feel something wet beneath his bare toes.

"Dude, what _is_ that?" Finn grabbed his nose, the connecting shackles causing Aerrow to smack himself in the face. The Sky Knight cursed, but kept his hands where they were.

"I don't think you want to know..." Piper turned a little green as her eyes adjusted to the sights around her. The cramped cells were filled with haggard, filthy people, and the stifling heat was working to strengthen the stench. A number of the prisoners had collapsed unconscious onto the moldy floor.

Oh, how she hoped they were just unconscious.

Stork saw it too. The people were sweaty, the people were dirty, the people were..._ ill_. He could almost see the bacteria swarming around in the air in front of him. The walls appeared to visibly ripple and crawl with microscopic infectious creatures. He tried to stifle a whimper, but this was far too much to ignore.

"I can't stay here!"

They all turned back to him. Stork had stopped and was yanking frantically on the shackles.

"Stork, calm down, it'll be okay!"

The Merb was on the verge of hyperventilating. It was so hot in there. So sticky. The walls and their curious dark stains were closing in around him.

"Okay? _Okay!_ This place is a _breeding ground_ for disease and contamination." He'd managed to squeeze one of his wrists free of its bond and was grappling with the other. "Firelice, rotworm nasal infestations, scum-bred nest-building armpit leeches, nailbed putrefaction... _rashes!_"

Finn looked at the Talon next to him. "Can we really catch all that? It sounds made up."

Aerrow had had enough. "Knock it off, Stork!"

"... should all be wearing masks and protective body suits, but it's probably too late."

"I SAID STOP!"

One of the guards finally noticed that the Merb had freed both of his hands and was close to regaining use of his feet. Had Stork not injured his ankle, he might have already been loose. But before he was even aware anyone was coming up behind him, the panicking Storm Hawks pilot had crumpled to the foul floor from a blow to the back of the head.

Aerrow cursed under his breath. Despite his anger at Stork, he didn't want to see him get hurt. And on top of that, the Merb was now laying in a puddle of something that had attracted a number of red flies. The Talons found this terribly amusing, but not quite as funny as re-attaching the manacles so that Stork hung limply from the chains attached to Piper, who in turn was now off-balance and tugging at Junko.

"Just try to keep him steady until we reach our cell," Aerrow called back.

The Talons continued laughing. One of them hollered: "Put them on the top level!" which received a number of approving cheers.

Aerrow felt his face going red with anger. He'd seen this scene of chains and torture and humiliating defeat once before. The Oracle had promised something different, but here they were. He had started to resolve himself to the fact that this was their fate. This would be the end of them. This was their _future_...

But the faces of the laughing guards, the sick and hopeless prisoners, and his worried teammates... it all ignited something inside of him. A fuse that he'd feared had gone out had been re-lit.

To hell with the Oracle's prophecy. If she wasn't going to change the future, then _he would_.

--

_Introduction chapters are always the hardest, but I'm having a lot of fun with this. Expect more soon!_


	2. Chapter 2: Blessings in Disguise

_I would normally have waited to post this second chapter until the first had had a chance to, uh, simmer? But it was written at the same time as the first, clarifies a few things, and well... I'm impatient._

--

**Chapter 2 - Blessings in Disguise**

Uhm. I think it's pretty clear that I don't do the, uh, 'fighting' thing.

At least not directly.

I don't have Finn's eye, or Aerrow's stealth, or Junko's muscle, or Piper's enthusiam. Even Radarr has taken down more foes than I have. And when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, I'd much rather leave it to someone who enjoys that sort of thing... unless of course I have plenty of sanitizer available. But it still wouldn't be advisable.

I make things. I fly the Condor. If it comes down to a fight, I let my intelligence and my inventions do the work for me. I enjoy winning, don't get me wrong. But why take the risk?

That's my true role, if I really had to pick a reason for my being a member of the Storm Hawks. I'm older than the rest of them by a large enough gap that I really had to wonder what I was doing in the beginning. But it became immediately apparent that... these kids... were prone to advancing wildly and with an insane eagerness into one deadly situation after another. If not for my warnings of doom, my preparations for most every imaginable disaster, and an uncanny ability to arrive with the Condor just in time, by my count, my teammates would be dead nine-hundred-and-six times over. Give or take.

I never wanted the role, but I ended up with it anyway. The role of guardian. The role of the nervous parent. No teenager listens to them, but the parent still tries. They claim to think of me as an equal, but I know there will always be a gap that sets me apart.

I cringe each and every time they ask me to play an active role in any of their foolhardy plans. They think it's fear, and, well, yes it is fear, but I also know that their fates are again in _my hands_. If I screw up, and the odds are always stacked immeasurably toward utter failure, it will be my fault if they get hurt.

I'm the oldest.

And they're... just kids...

OoOoO

Stork fingered the controls of the Condor, palms sweating and shoulders trembling. He gave an odd whimper every thirty seconds or so, eyes darting left and right. Why had they insisted he do this? There was no possible way it would work. There was usually some fraction of a chance at success, but this time, no, no way, this was suicide.

The radio was still silent. Even though he was waiting for it to jump to life, he knew as soon as it did he was going to scream and fall over. His brain was wound as tight as a rubber band.

Still no movement outside. He had the ship concealed behind an outcropping of rocks. The sun was starting to set. Oh no, please no, they couldn't expect him to do this in the dark.

The radio buzzed. Stork screamed and fell over.

"St--ork... C--in... Hear me, S--... Stork?"

The Merb scrambled back onto his lanky legs, knees knocking together. He leaned forward and pressed a button to speak.

"Uh, I think the rocks are blocking your transmission. S-say again?"

There was a great deal of static. He strained to hear Aerrow through the background noise.

"Hol--... sition un--i... ready for you--"

Stork's mouth and eye were twitching. He swallowed and side-stepped again to the controls. Carefully he eased the ship back, and then paused to catch his breath.

All right. This was it.

This was the battle for the Atmos.

And he was the bait.

OoOoO

"It's not that bad, Finn, hold still!"

"Well it hurts, Piper--hey! Stop _touching_ it!"

Stork's eyes fluttered open. He saw the blurred figures of Finn and Piper against a background of dim yellow light. The sharpshooter was trying to pull his wrist free from the crystal expert, who promptly groaned and gave up her effort to try and help him. Stork blinked, and then a throbbing pain in his head took hold. Following that, memories of the day's events trickled, unwelcome, back into the forefront of his mind. He winced and an involuntary whimper escaped him.

A second later, Junko's massive face filled his vision.

"Neh!" Stork jerked and fell from the uncomfortable wooden 'bed' he'd been placed on. Junko quickly caught him and sat the Merb upright.

"How're ya feeling?" Junko smiled, "That Talon hit your head pretty hard."

"Well then I feel like my head was hit pretty hard by a Talon, Junko."

The Wallop patted Stork firmly on one narrow shoulder and then left to join Finn on the other poor excuse for a bed. Piper looked over at Aerrow, who had parked himself in the corner in front of the cell's outer bars which looked out over Terra Thar's landscape. Determining that he was well occupied, she set herself down next to Stork.

"Can I see?" she asked.

Stork scowled, but conceded by leaning forward. Piper fingered though his slick black hair, finding a lot of it was caked with dried blood, but the wound itself didn't look too severe.

"Not that it matters," he grumbled, "an open wound in this place is like a flashing neon _welcome_ _sign_ to anything bacterial in nature."

"It's not as bad up here as it was on the lower floors," Piper informed him, "The Talons' effort to be cruel was actually a blessing in disguise. There are only two other cells up here with ours."

Stork shrugged. As far as he was concerned they were doomed one way or another. Disease, dehydration, malnutrition, heat exhaustion, or by a Cyclonian's weapon... they didn't stand a chance. He felt a hopelessness that even by his standards was a bit extreme. But more than that he felt a guilt that was indescribable.

Piper sensed that something was wrong beyond a simple head wound.

"Listen, Stork..."

He stopped her. "Don't. It's my fault. I know it's my fault. It was all on me, and I failed."

"No, it was a team effort! We failed _you!_ We shouldn't have expected so much from you."

That came out wrong and she knew it. Stork knew it too, but he also knew it was true. He allowed silence to wipe clean the slate of the conversation, and eyed Junko and Finn across from them. The two friends were excitedly comparing shackle-caused wrist wounds, Radarr appearing to act as judge; but he couldn't be sure who was winning, or whether the game was guaged by the depth of the abrasion or the volume of the whining.

Aerrow turned back from his staring and shifted his position, careful not to contact the bars. As Junko had found out earlier, they were electrically charged.

He looked like he wanted to say something, and continually stopped to mull it over. He blamed himself for what happened, ultimately. He was the leader, and he should have seen that things were properly organized. He should have made certain that Stork was where he needed to be at the exact moment he needed to be there. But a part of him was raging at his pilot. A part of him felt that they never really asked all that much of him. He should have been able to handle this one simple thing. It wasn't true, of course. Stork did things for the Storm Hawks that went against every instinct the Merb had. But that _one_ variable. If only that one aspect of the plan had worked... everything would have been different.

"I just need to know..." Aerrow spoke at last, and everyone shifted their gaze to him. He pulled his eyes from the floor to look at Stork. "With all of your paranoia, all of your planning and checking and double checking... why didn't you make sure the radio transmission was accurate? Why didn't you--"

"It doesn't matter, Aerrow," Piper couldn't take the broken look in Stork's eyes anymore.

"I just need to know."

Stork twitched. He despised these kinds of confrontations. The only thing that made him more uncomfortable was... _emotional dialogue_.

"I didn't think I had any time," he croaked, "I thought if I hesitated and debated and worried whether it was safe, that..." He shuddered and trailed off.

"All right."

Aerrow pulled himself off of the stone floor and filled the last remaining space on the bed next to Stork and Piper. "Sorry, buddy. I know it wasn't... all your fault. It's just. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe it ended this way."

He _could_ believe it was over, and he _could_ believe it ended this way. He'd seen it. He'd always dreaded it... But he'd continue to deny it.

Piper reached around Stork to squeeze Aerrow's shoulder. "It might not have."

A loud sniffle interrupted the quiet exchange. Junko was wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm so glad we're all still here together."

Piper concealed her own watery eyes with a smile. Finn snorted and playfully punched the Wallop in the upper arm to break the tension. Eventually the cell fell back into silence but for the sounds of the mining outside and the muffled chatter from the lower floors.

After a few moments, Finn frowned and cleared his throat. "Do you think these beds were meant to hold more than one perso--"

In a cloud of dust and splinters the beds simultaneously broke free from the walls and fell to the floor with their wide-eyed occupants still riding them.

"Yeah. Didn't think so."

OoOoO

The day had already been winding to a close when they'd arrived, and by the time the Storm Hawks had exhausted all attempts to get settled in their new 'home' (and pick splinters from sensitive areas), it was well after midnight. The heat of Terra Thar had long since vanished, and a biting cold had taken its place. Being high on the pyramid they had to deal with a great deal more wind, and there was nowhere to hide from it. They had all backed against the far wall which, unfortunately, also sported electrified bars. Every few minutes there came a spark and a yelp from either Junko or Finn, who kept inadvertantly falling asleep. Stork, Piper, and Aerrow had so far managed to stay awake and unharmed, but it was getting more difficult with every meandering minute. The only one sleeping comfortably was Radarr, who had not only found a cozy spot in Aerrow's lap, but came equipped with fur.

Junko blinked, zombie-like. "I'm sleepy..."

Finn hunched forward, arms folded around his middle. "I'm hungry..."

Piper rested her head in her hands. "I'm bored."

Stork's whole body was shuddering violently. "C-c-cold..."

Aerrow scratched his chin. "I'm going to go with sleepy also."

Radarr snored quietly.

"You guys cold?"

The sudden sound from behind caused Finn to jerk out of another semi-conscious state, but he still managed to contact the bars and electrocute himself again. Junko winced and then made a feeble attempt to flatten the sharpshooter's now afro-styled frizzy blonde hair.

Aerrow had turned himself a little more carefully, but there was only a wall behind their cell, and further down were the stairs they had originally used to reach this floor. They hadn't walked far enough to see the occupants of the other two cells, but the voice that had questioned them was impossible to forget.

"Suzi-Lu?"

"Hey there! I wondered when you were gonna try and talk to us. So much nicer at nighttime, don'tcha think?"

Aerrow exchanged a bewildered expression with Piper. "I don't know if I'd call any of this 'nice'..."

"Oh, well, no..." there was a pause and Aerrow could hear one of the male Absolute Zeroes mumble something, to which Suzi-Lu responded in a sadder tone. When she spoke again, her voice was trying not to break. "But ya can't give in to 'em, eh? Gotta make the best of what ya got."

"Yeah, I guess..." Aerrow felt stupid for forgetting that one of her boys had fallen in the fight. He had no right to be acting depressed when his team was still whole. He tried again in a lighter tone: "Still, it would be a little easier to make the best of this with some blankets."

"Oh, hang on there, eh?"

The Storm Hawks were all wide awake now, leaning as close to the bars as they could without feeling the burning charge of electricity against their skin. They could hear shuffling, unzipping, and metal snapping in the neighbouring cell.

"Here y'are, Storm Hawks," one of the boys said, sliding two jacket layers and a toque along the hall. "We don't need 'em, we're boilin' alive in here, eh?"

The two other Blizzarians followed suit, sending their extra layers to the front of the next cell. Eagerly, the Storm Hawks snatched them up.

"Wow, thanks, you're life savers!" Aerrow smiled, donning one of the heavy down jackets.

The coats were too small for Junko, but the Blizzarians wore enough layers that he was able to toss two over his shoulders to at least protect against the wind. Stork eyed the remaining coat with suspicion; he wasn't exactly fond of the idea of wearing borrowed clothing without washing it first. But then, he wasn't fond of freezing to death either. With a reluctant groan he pulled it on. Still warm. Ew.

"Did ya see those mines outside?" Suzi-Lu asked after they'd all gotten comfortable.

Piper siezed the topic. "I noticed they were harvesting crystals," she spoke in a tone that just barely failed to edge into the realm of know-it-all-ism. "I couldn't see what they were doing in the quarry, but I'm guessing the same thing. They must be going deep, and there have to be a number of Blocker crystals in place. I can't believe they've managed to keep such a huge operation secret. Worse is that we're going to end up a part of it..."

More soft mumbling from the neighbouring cell. Suzi-Lu hesitated. "Stork and Junko, ya mean?"

"What?"

"Here it comes..." Stork winced. No one else had noticed.

"They's just sendin' in the _'inferior species'_, eh?" Another one of the boys piped up. "They keep the rest of ya fer somethin' else."

Aerrow looked positively sick. "_Inferior species?_"

"Some joke, eh? I overheard 'em when we came up. No clue what you _superior_ types is gonna get stuck doin' though."

"That's so stupid!" Piper's face had darkened angrily. "They can't do that!"

Junko's eyes had been widening as the conversation went on. he had only just figured out what this all meant. He and Stork were going to have to work in the mines, without the rest of the Storm Hawks.

"They're going to separate us!?" he shouted. One of the guards yelled for silence from the outside terrace. Junko hunkered down and lowered his voice. "Will we have to stay out there?"

Aerrow wished he had the answers. "I don't know, Junko." He moved back to the bars again. "Suzi-Lu, do you know when this will happen?"

"Ah, no, sorry there, Aerrow. We'll keep an ear out, though."

The Storm Hawks were all looking at one another with desperation, with the exception of Stork, who was staring at the floor and wishing he still had his last will and testament handy. The Talons had stolen it from him when they'd raided the Condor.

... And he'd only just decided to leave his Opposable Grabber and the rest of the in-case-of-emergency-loss-of-thumbs kit to Junko, who might appreciate its general shininess.

Finn bit his lower lip. "Maybe they'll let you come back at the end of each day?"

Aerrow was scowling. Despite the Oracle's prophecy, plan after plan had been passing through his mind since their capture; each one coming forward to be analyzed and tossed aside when it was too impossible or too risky. The last thing he wanted now was another loss of life. They had no rides, no weapons, and no destination. They were outnumbered by Talons and stuck on the top floor of an electrified fortress. But even with all of this against them, he knew he had to do something. The longer they stayed here, the less likely they would ever get out.

"Hold on..." he said, eyes focused on whatever he was seeing in his head. "This isn't such a bad thing."

Stork's lip curled. "Oh no, because _back-breaking labour_ and _heavy lifting_ is just what this Merb was designed for."

"No, Stork, this is a way for us to find a weakness in this place. If you're given the freedom to wander around the work site, you can bring information about what you see back to us. We can come up with a plan."

"And, uh... what sort of freedom do you think we'll have, exactly?"

Stork's suspicious expression was making Aerrow angry again. _He had no right to complain when this was all his fault._ Aerrow closed his eyes and tried to rid his mind of those thoughts again.

"This is our only shot," he said, voice flat.

Junko sniffled. Radarr had woken up and was blearily trying to figure out what everyone was talking about.

Finn broke the silence. "That's assuming we ever see them again." He had sensed the tension, but he also couldn't help himself. He received glares from everyone for his effort.

But Aerrow was sticking to this idea for now. They could see it in his eyes. He stood up and turned to face them, hands in fists.

"Whatever happens, we'll find a way."

--

_My apologies for this one being a little shorter..._


	3. Chapter 3: Planning

_Wow, thanks everyone for the lovely comments! I had been debating for a long time whether or not to post this story, so I'm really happy you're enjoying it. Ambrel, I appreciate the in-depth reviews! Thanks for the number suggestion; I never did think that looked right, haha. And here's to impatience, it keeps the writing juices flowin'. ;)_

_And this is where things start to get a bit dark, but hopefully there's enough comic relief to balance it out. Enjoy!_

--

**Chapter 3 - Planning**

It was all so perfect. Piper and I had gone over the plan a hundred times, testing our ideas, training for the worst, and looking for any possible flaw or little forgotten detail. This would be the battle to end it all. It would involve dozens of Sky Knight squadrons from every corner of the Atmos. We would take Cyclonia down once and for all and whether we lived or died, when all was finished, every terra would be free.

It was fitting for us that the last battle should take place where it had all started for our team, in the skies over Atmosia. The Cyclonians were sending all that they had to claim the terra as their own, and we were determined to stop them... _forever._

Even while I planned, the memory of the Oracle was always on my mind. At the time I thought it was our only failsafe. Our one guarantee. She'd promised that a new path would begin upon her release, and as far as I was concerned that meant that whatever happened, however bad it got, we couldn't lose.

It was foolish, looking back. Completely foolish. And my faith in the stupid idea that losing was impossible ended up being responsible for that very thing happening.

But I got caught up in it. In planning. In preparing myself and my team. Maybe my optimism gave them a false sense of hope. Maybe we got careless because I didn't let them think for a moment that something might go terribly wrong...

I planned for every variable, except for the dangerous fantasy that the plan could never fail.

OoOoO

"...ink--ocks... ock--ans--sion... ay--again?"

Aerrow's face was white. He looked over at Piper, green eyes frantic. "I don't know what he's saying!"

She maneuvered her Heliscooter closer. "Try again."

Aerrow pressed the radio button a second time, pausing at first to catch his breath. The adrenaline was pumping and this slight hiccup in the plan was causing his heart to race ever faster. "Hold your position until we're ready for you!"

Static again, but no obvious attempt from Stork to respond. Aerrow swallowed as Radarr crawled forward with a look of similar apprehension. Again, he tried. "Stork, hold your position until we're ready for you!"

Aerrow returned his gaze to Piper. He was at a loss. "Do you think he heard us?"

OoOoO

Despite the added warmth and comfort offered by the Blizzarian's winter wear, the Storm Hawks did not find sleep easily that night. Their minds were buzzing, wondering in constant loops of thought what horrors they could expect in the coming days. They now had an awful idea of what Terra Thar held for Stork and Junko, but there was still the question of what was to become of the human members of the Storm Hawks. Would they be treated any differently, or would they be needed at all?

Every little sound caused them to rouse in fear. Were they coming? Was it time? The night went on this way until first light crept over the distant horizon of red mountains and the world around them began to warm and come to life again.

Finn and Junko were slumped upright, back-to-back against one of the two solid walls. Radarr had crawled beneath one of the Wallop's shoulder-coats in an attempt to escape a number of bugs that were already making a feast of his skin and fur.

Against the other wall Aerrow was also upright and had been drifting in and out of sleep, head lolling and jerking each time he heard a noise or got caught up in another nightmare. Though, what could be worse than this, he had to wonder.

He started to stretch, but felt a weight on his legs. Looking down, he saw Piper's head resting across his knees. The pressure had long ago caused both legs to succumb to numbness, but he couldn't find it in himself to wake her when the night had been so rough for all of them.

His eyes crossed back to the interior set of bars. Stork hadn't moved since the earlier conversation with the Absolute Zeroes. He was wide awake and staring into the hall, yellow eyes glowing ever so slightly in the still shadows of the first morning hours.

"Get any sleep?" Aerrow asked in a quiet voice.

Stork nearly jumped out of his skin, caught his shoulder against the bars, and stifled a yelp at the shock that followed. Aerrow offered him a brief but sincere look of guilt.

His shoulder still smoking, Stork craned his neck to face the Sky Knight. He raised his eyes at the sight of Piper sleeping there. "No. I didn't want to risk making any further unnecessary contact with the _floor_. Ah, you?"

"Not much."

Finn released a groan as he pulled free from whatever state of sleep he'd managed to find. His eyes were red and his hair was an absolute mess from earlier repeated electrocutions. Groggily he rolled to the side, causing Junko to fall backward with a shout. Radarr's tail was caught under the Wallop's shoulder and he promptly squealed and scrabbled in a pointless escape attempt.

"Oh, sorry, Radarr," Junko yawned and sat up again. Indignant, the little critter folded his arms and stomped back to Aerrow.

"Rrrg..." Piper lifted herself up and massaged the back of her aching neck. It took her a moment to realize where she'd fallen asleep. Blushing, she moved off to one side. "Ha, sorry, I, um. I roll around a lot in my sleep."

Aerrow smiled, "Don't sweat it. At least you got some sleep."

The two shared an incredibly awkward moment of silence, and then both pretended to be vastly interested in whatever was behind them.

"Uh, guys?" Finn was now standing. His face was distraught. "Little problem here."

This got him more attention than he would have liked for the problem in mind. He was fidgeting now and his face was going a bit red.

Aerrow looked concerned. "What is it, Finn? What's wrong?"

One by one, the sharpshooter eyed each person in the room. He was hunched over slightly and appeared to be in a lot of pain. The collective expressions of concern from his friends pressed him to continue.

"Okay, well..." He did a funny little dance on the spot and then gave up, eyes closed. "I really have to _pee_."

"Oh..." Aerrow cringed, but it occured to him that he had to go as well. "Oh, _no_."

Finn was clearly suffering with this dilemma. "So, where do we..."

Piper rolled her eyes. She pointed to an overturned metal bucket that had been sitting in the middle of the cell since they'd arrived. "Your throne awaits, Finn."

There was a brief moment in which Finn looked like he didn't quite believe her, and then horror took over his features.

"No way. There's _no way!_ Come on! We're supposed to use _that?_"

Piper couldn't help but laugh. "What did you think it was for? Gathering berries?"

"Well, what do we do with it once we... y'know...?"

Stork shuddered and wondered how badly he would be burned and shocked if he tried to squeeze himself through the bars and make a break for it.

Unfortunately, he also had to use the bucket.

In the horrendously embarrassing moments that followed, the Storm Hawks came to realize just was true friendship meant. Left with little other option, the bucket served its purpose (with the help of covered eyes and a lot of loud, accompanying 'la-la-la'ing) and was promptly pushed into a corner of the cell that would henceforth be known as a land of _exile_. The remenants of the broken beds were used to cover the little bucket of horrors, and the group again crowded next to the interior bars, vowing never to speak of this again.

However, there wasn't a great deal else to talk about.

"Piper, did you know you had a mole on your--"

"_Finn._ Say another word and you'll find that bucket overturned on your head."

Then again, vows were sometimes made to be broken.

OoOoO

The morning hours passed with little excitement. Piper and Aerrow were tossing hypothetical scenarios back and forth in an attempt to solidify an escape plan that was counting primarily on things that hadn't, or might never actually happen. Finn was using a piece of wood to scratch out what appeared to be a crude drawing of a skimmer on the wall. Junko was regaling Stork with a story his aunt had apparently told him as a child, about two Wallops that collectively carried a terra out of the path of a terrible storm. Stork was trying to imagine if a pick-axe to the brain would be worse than Junko's story. And Radarr, victorious, had caught and destroyed one of the bugs that had been plaguing him since the day before.

Aerrow scratched his chin and tossed another question out there for Piper. "How deep do you think they've mined?"

"From what I recall, the original excavators were mostly interested in a dry riverbed. They deepened it enough to need ladders--I saw them in the old photos--but I couldn't give you any exact numbers."

"What about this cave?"

Piper frowned. "I don't remember anything about caves, to be honest. Though I suppose in the time that's passed, sandstorms might have uncovered them."

"So, it's possible this cave system might go down pretty far..."

Aerrow was looking as though he'd reached some conclusion, but Piper really didn't like this idea of basing plans on vague what-ifs.

"We can't really know until..." she sighed, dropping to a whisper, "until they take Stork and Junko."

Aerrow's face lost a bit of its optimism, but he nodded. She was right, as usual. He was eager to solve this, but it would be a huge mistake to get ahead of himself. He just hated the idea of subjecting his friends to the mines in order to figure it all out. Even worse was the thought that once Stork and Junko left, they might not return. If that happened, they could be completely out of luck.

Finn tossed his drawing stick away. "Ooohhhhh, I am _starving!_"

Piper and Aerrow had been trying to ignore the subject of hunger. They knew as soon as it was mentioned, Finn's whining would be unstoppable. But it had been well over a day since any of them had eaten or drank anything, and the heat was not helping in the slightest.

"Those people we saw when we came in here," Junko said, "they looked really hungry. How often do you think they feed them?"

Piper wanted to lie to make him feel better, but she knew how heartless the Cyclonians could be. The bucket in the corner was hardly the worst thing they were likely to endure here.

"Probably not as often as they could," she frowned.

Finn crumpled onto his side. "It's too late! I think I'm already dying..."

"You're far from dying, Finn. Sit up."

Stork jumped to his feet and eyed the bars, ears perking. He was frozen in place except for the twitch of his eye, which hadn't ceased in the weeks since Aerrow's first mention of his role-to-come in battle.

"Stork?"

"Someone's coming."

Seconds later, a group of six Talons, all with weapons at the ready, emerged from the stairwell and formed in a line facing the cells. The other Storm Hawks rose to their feet and Aerrow pushed forward, Stork gladly moving in behind.

"Hurry it up!" One of the Talons shouted back down the stairs. There came a weak, muffled reply, and then a young, blue mottled Terradon wandered forward. She was a pitiful creature; skinny and shivering and staring up at her captors like an abused dog fearing a smack across the muzzle.

"All of you, against the wall."

Aerrow glared at them, refusing to budge. "Or _what?_"

The 'what' occured almost immediately. One of the Talons stepped forward and brandished a squarish orange crystal, clamped to the top of his stave. The bars to the cell rolled back and a shockwave burst forward from the weapon. A crushing pressure hit Aerrow smack in the chest, sending him flying back with the others. They all slammed the hard stone with pained grunts, forced against the wall as if flattened under a load of bricks, unable to move an inch or even draw a proper breath.

"Or that," the Talon grinned. He turned to look back at the Terradon child. "Make it quick. Go!"

The youngster ran forward, kicked aside the pieces of bed, and grabbed the bucket. She scrabbled out again past two advancing Talons, one of them carrying a brown sack and the other with a badly-rusted canteen. Both items were dropped in the middle of the cell while the Storm Hawks watched, pinned and helpless. The girl came back a moment later, the bucket emptied but definitely not cleaned.

"Now behave yourselves or you'll go a day without _room service_."

The Talon backed out of the cell with a smile, shut the bars, and only then released the squadron from the wall. Each fell to their feet with a gasp, their lungs burning for air. Stork landed harshly on his twisted ankle and nearly choked, his fearful eyes catching the Talon's before the line of them turned to leave for the next cell. The 'you're next' look in the Cyclonian's own eyes sent a shiver down his spine.

"Well that was just _rude_," Finn croaked, eyeing the bag.

"Pressure crystals. Lesson learned," Piper frowned. "I think this is our food and water for the day, so let's make a point to ration it. We don't know when we'll next--_FINN!_"

The blonde looked up, a whole roll of bread already crammed in his mouth. "Whuhhft?"

Piper yanked the bag out of his hands and sat against the wall next to Aerrow. She studied the contents. Inside were five additional rolls of rock-hard bread and something that might have passed as jerky, but could also have been a dried-up lizard. She cringed.

"Well I hope you enjoy that Finn, because that's all you get."

The sharpshooter moaned, and then set to work chewing.

"And that'd be our water," she motioned to the canteen and Junko handed it to her. "In the heat here, we'll need to be extra careful with this."

Aerrow took a roll and broke it in half, shoving the rest of it into his pocket. He caught sight of a little bug scurrying through the inside of the loaf, but was too hungry to care. Extra protein, if anything.

Junko and Piper both took a roll of their own, and she was surprised to see that the certainly famished Wallop mimicked Aerrow, saving the second half of his food for later. Finn rolled his eyes at this blatant display of common sense and wandered back to the wall to add flames to his skimmer engraving. At least Radarr made no attempt at conservation, though he had a delicious dried-up lizard to look forward to later.

"Here you go, Stork," Piper pushed the bag in the Merb's direction. He was huddled back in place next to the bars, mind off somewhere else. It took a moment for his eyes to catch sight of the bag, and the little beetle-like bugs dashing allover it.

"Uh, _no_... I don't think so."

Aerrow swiped the bugs away and pulled out the last roll. "Look, it's not that bad. They're just bugs."

Stork shivered and wiggled his fingers in the direction of the foul little creatures. "These _'just bugs'_ look a lot like the sort that burrow under the skin and chew out tunnels on their way to the vital organs."

Finn paled and dropped his drawing stick again.

"All right, fine, _don't_ eat," Aerrow turned away from him and tossed the bag back into the middle of the cell, not in the mood to argue. He then grabbed the canteen and went to take a sip, but stopped.

"Here," he handed it to Stork, "take a drink before I get my organ-eating bug germs allover it."

Stork would have refused on account of the canteen's vast amounts of rust, but Aerrow's renewed glaring and the fact the Merb's mouth felt like sandpaper pushed him to give in. He took the first sip, and then the canteen was passed around to the rest of the Storm Hawks. To their relief, a good half of the water remained, as warm and as stale as it tasted.

Drawing his legs back up again next to the bars, Stork decided to take it upon himself to watch the others for symptoms of both organ decay and rust poisoning. Just to be safe.

OoOoO

Aerrow's eyes had closed at some point, and sleep had taken the opportunity to jump on him without warning. His anxious psyche fought back with a million flickering strings of thought. Across his mind's eye spiraled images of the prisoners, of the battle, of the Oracle's prophecy, and of Piper sleeping on his legs... He could hear shouting and explosions and the Dark Ace's final threat, snippets of Stork's broken transmission, and the eternal tink-tink-tinking of the miners of Terra Thar. He then heard Suzi-Lu's voice. "Don't touch 'im!"

His eyes rolled beneath his lids, brows furrowing into a frown.

"We're not goin' nowhere!"

And then Piper. "No, it's happening. Aerrow!"

The Sky Knight mumbled through his half-waking dreams of defeat and torment and futures that needed to be altered.

"_Aerrow!_"

Piper was shaking him. He jerked, and then sat up straight, eyes wide. Stork and Junko were backed close to the outside bars, and Finn, in some hopeless attempt at bravery, was standing in front of them, arms spread. There was a commotion in the neighbouring cell.

"They're taking them... the Absolute Zeroes." Piper informed him, her eyes streaming with tears. She was kneeling on the ground, looking to her team leader for some resolution she knew couldn't come.

"Pin them so I can get these shackles on!"

"We're not gonna do yer diggin'! Buncha hosers!"

The Storm Hawks flinched at the sound of three bodies slamming the well next to them. The noise of chains and shackles being fastened followed, and then the thump of each Blizzarian again landing on the floor. The bars rolled open and three Talons headed to the stairs, trailed by three more who led Suzi-Lu and her boys by metal collars.

Stork had started to whimper, his teeth chattering. Junko gently covered the Merb's mouth, for some reason hoping that if the Talons didn't hear them, they might forget that they were there at all.

And in fact the Talons almost walked by, but for one of them suddenly noticing something on a clipboard he carried. "Hold up," he raised a hand to those who were already starting to descend. "There's some in here, too."

"Oh no, no, no," Piper breathed. She was a wreck of sobs and shivers now. Aerrow had never seen her like this. He reached out a cautious hand and touched her shoulder, unsure of what else he could do. She responded by fiercely grabbing his wrist.

"Let's do this the easy way, Storm Hawks. Have the Wallop and the Merb come forward."

The Talon was young, that was obvious. He was also clearly shaken from the encounter in the last cell. But Aerrow didn't care if he was an injured baby deer, he was a threat to Stork and Junko.

"You're not taking them." Aerrow stood and walked with assurance toward the bars, the Talon taking a step back on the other side. "They're staying here."

At that moment the escape plan didn't matter. He couldn't let this happen. He was filled to the brim with rage and anxiety that had been bubbling and building since the day before, and now he was close to exploding.

"They're going to come one way or another. They can come unharmed, or we can take them by force. Your choice, Sky Knight, though I'd think you'd be concerned about their well being--"

Aerrow reached through the electric bars and grabbed the Talon's collar. He pulled the man back, his face contacting the cell in a shower of sparks. For that brief moment Aerrow didn't care what he was doing, but at the sound of the young Talon's screams, he blinked in horror and released him. Piper had ran forward at the same time and grabbed him back.

The Talon's face was blistered and bleeding. His hands came up to cover the wounds and he rushed back in terror, swallowed up by the dozen or more Cyclonians that had heard the screaming and charged in. The bars came back, and in a flurry of movement Stork and Junko were overwhelmed and hauled out, the Wallop subdued by another Pressure Crystal and Stork kept flat on the floor by a number of heavy boots while they shackled his wrists from behind.

Aerrow was the target of three Talons' weapons, and Finn rushed in to his aid, receiving a few punishing injuries of his own. Piper was trying to pull one of the staves free, but crumpled back from a kick to her side.

Junko yelled and struggled in the hall, seven Talons already on him and more needed to keep him under control. Stork was frozen and wide-eyed on the floor. Both had been collared. The Wallop was still putting up a fight as he disappeared down the stairs, the Merb following eventually with his head bowed and body quaking allover.

"That one too," one of the newly-arrived Talons ordered, pointing to Radarr, who was gnawing on a fellow guard's ankle. "Grab it!"

"NO!" Aerrow screamed.

Radarr screeched and fought, but the collar he was quickly issued was not merely for show. It released a defeaning buzz and the furry Storm Hawk stiffened before going limp, though his eyes still darted about the cell within his paralyzed face.

"Leave them, let's go."

The remaining guards gradually stopped their fighting with Finn and Aerrow, perplexed by the order.

"Don't _break_ them. We need them in fighting shape. C'mon."

Shrugging, the Talons left the cell and the remaining Storm Hawks. Aerrow struggled back to the outer bars, hoping to get a glimpse of his friends when they came out; but after ten minutes of watching and panting and rubbing his wounds, there was still no sign of them. He closed his furious eyes and slammed a fist against the floor.

"Th-they'll be okay, dude," Finn tried. His face was bruised, but he wasn't badly harmed otherwise.

"We knew..." Piper squeaked from the corner, a bit unsettled by Aerrow's outburst. "We knew it was going to happen."

The red-head seemed to lose the last of his pent-up fury. He looked beaten now, slouched and worried.

Piper was relieved to see the real Aerrow again, and crawled forward. She hugged him, and it was something they both needed. In the silence that followed, Finn started to feel a bit useless and uncomfortable, so he took the risk and patted Piper on the back.

"The plan will work, Aerrow." Piper pulled away and smiled.

He forced a weak grin in return. "Yeah. It'll work."

But Finn wasn't ready to leave it at that. He walked to the interior bars again, listening, and then turned back to his exhausted friends. His face was full of puzzlement. "What did they mean by 'fighting shape'?"

--

_Dun dun dun. And now the fun begins..._

_Did I mention I'm an awfully cruel writer?_


	4. Chapter 4: Fairy Tales

_Wow, you guys are awesome, seriously. Thanks so much for the encouraging comments! Dragon Faere -- So glad you like my Stork, haha. I love the guy, and though he's probably the hardest to properly portray, he's terribly fun to write for. defectivebrainstorm -- I smiled like crazy reading your comment. I adore your stories so much that I'm all giddy to know you're reading mine._

_And, well, Stork fans... I suppose this one's for you._

--

**Chapter 4 - Fairy Tales**

A lot of people don't understand my penchant for pessimism.

To the great majority I suppose I come off as a cynical, whining, miserable sort of person, and I guess to an extent I am. I could easily place the blame on my upbringing; Terra Merb isn't exactly a land of milk and honey... unless of course that milk and honey is being rocketed through the air by a massive deadly cyclone. But more than anything I've just found that it works.

Preparing for the worst, what's so wrong with that? If the worst happens, than I know exactly what needs to be done. And if by some miracle we manage to evade the worst... _unlikely_... then it's that much more of a triumph.

I've been told that it must be exhausting to think the way I do. But I find it reassuring more than anything. It's a safe place, here where resolutions are devised. Hope and faith, now that requires a great deal of effort.

Leaving everything up to chance? Believing that believing will see you through your hardships?

It's something of a fantasy, isn't it?

And, well, I've never been much of a believer in fairy tales.

OoOoO

Stork was vaguely aware that his legs were moving, and that he was walking down an endless number of stairs, but his mind had yet to catch up with him. If he had to guess, his mind had popped free and rolled to the end of the hallway while three Talons were standing on his back.

"Why'd you have to take us? Where are we going?" Junko begged from somewhere ahead of him.

The Wallop had tired himself out in the struggle for freedom; he'd given up when half the population of on-duty guards had dog-piled on top of him, which to them seemed a better idea than using the collar to cause temporary paralysis as in the case of Radarr. Junko would have been a tad more difficult to carry down some forty flights of stairs.

Not that dragging him by a chain leash had proven any easier.

"Do we get to come back? Hey! No pushing. _Oof!_"

Poor Junko. Ever the naive and innocent one. If there were a member of the Storm Hawks that should have been made exempt from punishment and forced labour, it was their gentle giant, Junko. Then again, he was also the only one perfectly equipped for it.

Still not paying attention to the world around him, Stork felt a sudden end to the stairwell and stepped out into nothing. With a strangled cry he fell forward, unable to brace himself with his arms still chained at his back. He shut his eyes and felt massive hands snatch him around the middle and fling him sideways.

"I gotcha, Stork!" Junko smiled.

Stork hung his head, sure that his neck had just suffered some serious whiplash. On top of that, he was now stuck in a disturbing and unsanitary position under one of Junko's sweaty arms, and his face was feeling sore from exceeding the daily limit for nervous ticking.

"Great, Junko. That's really helpful..." he stiffened and kicked his legs, "How about _putting me down?_"

Junko obliged, setting Stork onto his feet and dusting off the Merb's shoulders like an expensive, manically-twitching statue. He then backed off to survey the area.

"That's odd." He scrunched up his face at what he saw. The stairs had come to an abrupt stop at the top of a pit, easily twelve feet deep, the walls made of featureless flat rock but for the furthest away which housed an ominous metal door.

Stork mumbled incoherent curses and set to struggling and contorting his shoulders, easing himself free from the bonds a second time.

Thin wrists: the shackle-maker's arch-nemesis.

He let them fall into the red dirt at his feet and tried to shake off the crawling feeling in his skin. He too settled his eyes on the door. It looked like the sort of door meant to release a giant, slavering beast onto unsuspecting prisoners for the amusement of its merciless keepers. And this pit was all too appropriate for such a deadly encounter to take place. He backed against the opposite wall, limps splayed... and started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Junko scratched his horn (his own wrists had been freed by sheer force).

Stork hunched his shoulders. "Eh-_heh_... we're going to die."

"I don't get it."

"Open the door!"

Stork spun around to look up at the Talon calling from the stairs. His eyes then shot back to the far wall and the first sounds of latches coming free on the other side of the giant door. Teeth clenched, he sidestepped into the closest corner and tried to will himself to become invisible. Junko stood where he was, mouth gaping, only backing a few steps when the door finally started to open.

Stork had a manic half-smile on his face. _Oh good. It'll eat Junko first._

"Hello?" Junko continued to back away, the moving door too large to see what awaited on the other side. A smoky smell poured into the room.

Again shaking like a leaf, Stork debated whether to cover his eyes or attempt to climb out of the pit of doom while Junko was still standing there looking stupid and delicious. But that irritating sense of duty got in the way again. He shut his eyes, cringed, and then ran forward.

"Junko, move!" He hesitated, and then tugged at the Wallop's sleeve. "Go--over there! If you stand here a minute longer you're going to be mauled and devoured by--a..." he stopped, eyes turning downward, "a... _small child_."

The Terradon girl stared up at them. She was holding Radarr, who was slowly regaining use of his limbs but was content to stay within her grasp. Junko folded his hands.

"Aww, poor little thing. I think you scared her, Stork."

"I... _what?_" It was Mr. Cheepers allover again.

She stepped forward and took the Merb's hand. Stork instinctively yanked it away from her, which didn't sit well with Junko. He put his hands on his hips like a disapproving grandmother.

"Stork, be nice! She's just a kid."

Stork held his hands in close to his chest, one finger pointing at the wide-eyed Terradon child. "Uh, Junko, need I remind you that this little girl is responsible for dumping the _waste buckets?_"

"Oh yeah! I thought she looked familiar!"

"Geh..."

"Well I think she wants us to follow her." Junko smiled broadly and took the waiting girl's tiny hand, leaning far forward in order to do so. Radarr chittered and the Wallop followed them into the shadowy tunnel beyond the doorway.

Stork stood where he was, limbs held stiff and crooked from stress. Land of bacteria and Talons behind him. Dark and creepy tunnel ahead. He grumbled and moved forward.

"Famous last words..."

OoOoO

"So..." Finn broke the silence that had again taken hold. He, Aerrow, and Piper were sitting in a little circle in the middle of the cell, and another uncomfortable ten minutes had gone by without an uttered word. It was driving the sharpshooter mad.

"Okay, don't hate me for asking this, but," Finn prodded the brown sack. "If he's in the mines now, can we eat Stork's bread?"

"_Finn!_" Both Aerrow and Piper responded in unison.

"What about the jerky lizard?"

More dirty looks.

"I'm just saying! It's gonna go to waste."

Aerrow shook his head and Piper continued to glare. Finn conceded his defeat and went back to staring at the floor, prepared to interrupt the unnerving quiet again in another ten minutes if something interesting didn't happen.

Piper sighed and concluded that the monotony wasn't helping matters. If anything, it was just giving them each an opportunity to stew in their thoughts, and those thoughts, for the moment, were far from the productive sort.

"How's your arm?" she asked Aerrow.

The red-head looked a bit startled, and then glanced at his arm as though just realizing there was something wrong with it. "Oh, I think it's all right."

"Mmm-hmm, I can see that from the way it's bleeding allover your lap," Piper gave him a sly smile. "Let me have a look."

Aerrow shrugged and pulled back his sleeve, revealing a bloodied gash across the underside of his arm. The bruise that had formed around the wound made it look much worse than it was.

"Ha, cool!" Finn leaned in for a closer look. "That's really gross, dude."

Aerrow grinned at the injury. "Yeah, and it kind of smells!"

The two of them exchanged an enthusiastic high-five.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Congratulations! Now... hold still."

In age-old wound-treating fashion, she tore a strip of fabric from one of the unused Blizzarian jackets and, after sparing just a small amount of water to rinse the gash, she wrapped and tied it tightly.

"There. I think you might live."

Aerrow playfully wiped his forehead. "Phew. Close call."

Piper had laughed and started to respond, but heard voices on the stairwell again. The sun had just set and it was too dark to make out the forms until they were standing in front of the cell. The Talons were chatting with each other as though the Storm Hawks were just animals in a zoo exhibit, one of them laughing at whatever anecdote had just been told. Eventually they turned to the bars.

"Give us the bag and the canteen," the laughing Talon said, impatience in his voice. "C'mon, c'mon, our shift is almost over. Hurry it up."

Piper looked at Aerrow and Finn. The two of them were clearly too tired to risk another fight. To avoid that from happening, she obliged and slid the food and water forward.

Aerrow jerked. "Piper, wait!--"

"Shh!"

The Talons rolled the bars back and took the canteen and the bag. Noticing that both still contained food and water, they snickered before resuming their conversation and heading back down the stairs.

"Why did you do that?" Aerrow asked.

Piper frowned at him for even thinking to question her actions. "I didn't want you fighting again! You were lucky you only got your arm scratched last time, Aerrow."

He shook his head, "I wasn't going to. I was trying to tell you to dump the bag and let us finish the water first."

"Oh..." Piper gave a nervous smile and cleared her throat. "Sorry..."

Finn was smiling also. Piper glared at him. "_Don't _you say it."

"Piper..."

"Don't say it, Finn."

The three friends reformed their circle and again fell into thought-stewing silence. Piper fingered her sleeve, thinking of the rare crystals of Terra Thar and the miners who were only separated from their power by Blockers. Aerrow was pondering the cave system and its potential for hiding and hoarding and organizing.

After ten minutes, Finn carried out his duty of interrupting the silence. He grinned at Piper.

"Told you we should have eaten it."

OoOoO

The tunnel had lightened once Junko, Stork, Radarr, and their guide had rounded the first bend. Torches were set in the walls on either side, spaced at ten foot intervals, flickering against the red rock in such a way as to incite visions of a stereotypical Hell. From somewhere within the cave system came the distinct and now familiar sound of picks hitting stone.

Stork eyed the torches. "Well, I think it's safe to say that we're... in the mines."

"It's not so bad," Junko smiled, fingering a quartz deposit, "kinda pretty."

The Terradon girl led them into a side tunnel, which opened up into a large cavern, this area lit not only by torches but also a massive number of Blocker Crystals all situated within the cave ceiling. The cart tracks they'd seen outside were also present in this chamber, winding down a far-off inclined tunnel, circling the cavern in its entirety, and leaving the same way. Exhausted prisoners with picks and shovels were positioned everywhere, and an almost equal number of Talons conducted a constant sweep, forever hovering around individual groups of miners like vultures waiting for someone to drop.

"Oh yeah," Stork's face had lost most of its colour, "it's beautiful, Junko."

The little girl had already started to walk away. Radarr squawked in protest.

"Wait!" Junko trotted after her. "What do we do now?"

She turned back, ever so slowly. Radarr pulled himself free of her grasp and found a new position on Junko's shoulder. He shook himself off like a wet dog, willing away the last of the paralysis. The Wallop bent forward again.

"Are you all alone here?" he asked her. The girl remained quiet, large eyes staring blankly.

"What's your name?"

No response. Stork sidled up, hands still curled close (because you never could be sure when someone, or something, might suddenly feel it prudent to lop off your arms). The Terradon girl turned her eyes to him but stayed silent.

"Hm, a child that doesn't speak. I've changed my mind, she's not so bad."

A crash from one end of the work site grabbed their attention. Stork and Junko turned to see that someone had lost hold of one of the carts as they'd tried to push it up the incline. It had rolled back into the carts behind, all of them spilling their contents of rocks and crystals and interrupting the overall flow of ceaseless toil. Shouting ensued, and those prisoners in the vicinity of the accident quickly fled back while the slave-driving Talons swarmed in to locate the responsible party. No single miner willing to admit guilt, the Cyclonians targeted anyone who hadn't managed to flee the scene, maliciously striking them each in turn with their respective weapons, and then ordering the mess be cleaned.

Stork had ducked behind his living-shield of a companion, and peered out only when the shouting had died down. "Okay. Remind me not to let _that_ happen..."

"It was only an accident!" Junko's face was full of anger and confusion. He turned to speak with the little girl again, but she had fled along with others during the commotion.

Talons were now rounding everyone up to resume working. The groups slowly re-formed and the picking and shoveling and pushing of carts continued. Everything was as it should be... except for the Merb and the Wallop (plus furry shoulder friend) standing baffled in a tunnel entrance.

"You two! What do you think you're doing? Get over here!"

Stork pointed to himself and then shook his head, pointing instead to Junko and Radarr. He started backing off the way they'd come, but three guards were fast advancing.

"Are you deaf? Move! Get to your groups!"

Junko raised his hands. "We're new!"

Stork nodded, clinging defensively to the tunnel wall. "_Very_ new! Probably too new to be of any real value."

"Value?" The Talons laughed. "If you have working arms and legs you're of value."

Stork flinched and cursed the day his embryonic self had decided to form arms and legs.

"Over there." The laughter long gone, one of the Talons pointed to a side chamber furthest from where they were standing, only a small group of workers collected there. "Join your snow-bunny friends and expect to work an extra hour today for wasting our time."

Junko gave a sad nod, stepped forward, stopped, turned, peeled Stork from the wall, and the two of them walked through the main chamber toward their assigned work area. Radarr was crouched as low on the Wallop's shoulder as was physically manageable, whimpering and chittering at every horrible sight he took in.

And there were quite a few. The workers were in bad shape beyond a layer of filth and badly tattered clothing. Most were bruised and bleeding, pale from the lack of sun, panting from thirst, and wasted from too much toil and too little food. Though Stork appeared to be the only Merb, Junko saw a number of Wallops among the miners. It pulled at his heart to see them treated like animals; weakened and cowering instead of heroically moving terras in bedtime stories.

"Don't worry, Stork," he spoke in a firmer tone now. "We'll find a weak spot. We'll get everyone out of here."

Stork had trailed behind, finding it difficult to keep up whilst also trying to avoid flying picks and rolling carts. "Hah! Why would I worry? It's not like we're both going to die down here while we hopelessly search for clues--_D'ah!_" Stork ducked in order to avoid decapitation by a swinging shovel.

"It's not hopeless, Stork! We're the good guys!"

"This isn't a _fairy tale_, Junko. There are no magic beans, Wallops don't carry terras, and the good guys don't always win." Stork briefly avoided tripping over a rock, ducked under a Talon's outstretched arm, spun away from two hurried workers, and then tripped over a rock anyway.

"Well that doesn't mean we should just give up."

"Sometime's that's preferable to trying and failing."

Junko shook his head. He didn't believe that. There was no such thing as a definite failure. So long as he had the strength to keep trying, he would do just that.

Stork stopped trying to catch up and concentrated instead on not getting killed. He knew he shouldn't discourage Junko. The oblivious Wallop was probably the only one in that cave with any hope left, and he knew that hope was a powerful weapon. He'd had hope. He'd gone against his usual pessimism and put faith in Aerrow's plan. There were a few moments, however fleeting, that he had actually believed they couldn't lose in such a perfectly straight-forward battle between good and evil. But when they did... and when he had been responsible for it... maybe the fear and the uncertainty might have come in handy. He knew he would have at least made sure that message was clear.

"Well, hello there! You two made it, eh?"

Stork wandered up to the Absolute Zeroes, head hanging low as Junko eagerly greeted the three of them with open arms. Suzi-Lu embraced Junko and then hugged the Merb from behind, shocking him out of his trance of self-loathing.

"They got us right after you. Radarr too," Junko informed her. Radarr sat up again, offering a wave.

"Well, that's a shame there. But at least we get to be workin' buddies, eh? There's picks and shovels over 'round that cart there, boys, help yerselves."

Junko happily marched away to select some tools. Suzi-Lu remained next to Stork, who was trying to evade further crushing embraces by appearing interested in the fabrication of the cart tracks.

"So then, what's the plan, eh?" she asked, bright eyed and eager.

Stork raised an eyebrow. "P-plan?"

"Oh I bet Aerrow an' Piper've been cookin' something up since you stepped foot here! They're smart cookies, those two. What can we do to help?"

"Uh, help. Well..."

Junko arrived with a pick and a shovel. "Here you go, Stork!"

Stork looked up just in time for a heavy pickaxe to land against his chest and throw him clean off of his feet.

One of the male Absolute Zeroes stepped forward, casually holding his own pickaxe over one shoulder. He looked down at the Merb's crumpled form. "Gotta lift with yer knees there, eh?"

Stork struggled back to his feet, hunched over the pick. If that impact hadn't caused his ribs to break and skewer one of his lungs, he would be very surprised. Junko gave the nervous laugh he generally did when he inadvertently injured someone, and Stork, with a great deal of effort, lifted the mining tool to gauge just how quickly this exercise was going to kill him.

"My plan, at the moment?" He rested the pick against the wall. "Is to try and live until the end of this shift..."

--

_Well, he _almost_ found out if a pickaxe to the brain was worse than Junko's story..._


	5. Chapter 5: Off to Work

_More thank yous are in order! Glad people are still reading, haha. Dragon Faere -- thanks for the tip, I decided to take it. I'll just enjoy the ride and see where it takes me (or... them). . defectivebrainstorm -- I'm afraid Stork is just the most fun to pick on, poor guy. He asks for it, really. This is an advanced warning! XD_

_Now, I've done a lot of assuming in this chapter in regards to Aerrow's backstory. We know he's the last descendant of the original Storm Hawks, and in the opening to the show we see a Sky Knight who, let's face it, looks exactly like an older Aerrow. Could be an uncle or an older cousin... who knows. For the sake of this story, let's imagine it's Aerrow's father. 8D_

--

**Chapter 5 - Off to Work**

We've had a lot of battles in our short history as the new Storm Hawks. Each one of them was a learning experience, and we definitely had some close calls, but there's one thing that has always stood out about our encounters with Cyclonians...

Talons are pretty incompetent.

Now, I really don't mean to sound conceited. Fighting against Talons is by no means a walk in the park. But compared to the Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe, or Master Cyclonis, they're more of an inconvenience than anything. I mean, there has to be an entire colony of them down there in the Wastelands by now, living in tents made of parachutes.

It's unfair, really. So many of them are just mistreated, misguided kids who have this romantic idea about war being something glorious. Ha... kind of like we were, I guess.

And in a way we were only just a step above.

When you really think about the sheer numbers of them, it's not hard to imagine Cyclonians taking over the Atmos. And if each of those Talons actually had some _skill?_ There would be no hope for anyone.

But, lucky for us they've always been no more than a bunch of goons.

Lucky for us, Cyclonia's training methods have always... fallen a bit short.

OoOoO

For the Storm Hawks, the first full day of life on Terra Thar had come to an end. The chilly night upon them again, Aerrow, Piper, and Finn were still missing half of their team as they lay bundled in coats on the cold cell floor. It was really only at that moment, staring across their bleak living quarters, through the electric bars, off beyond the miners and the Cyclonians and the Atmos, at the distant stars that never changed, that the three of them realized just how far they had fallen.

Aerrow's eyes were watching his favourite constellation. It was one he'd grown quite attached to as a child. Officially it was supposed to be some part of a lion or a bear, and many a frustrated science teacher had tried to remind him of this fact; but to Aerrow it had always looked like a hawk. The same emblem he wore so proudly today, in fact. Back then he would stare at that collection of stars and think of his father, dreaming of one day taking up that heroic role as the leader of the Storm Hawks.

It sickened him to imagine what his father would have thought about the battle that had sent them here. The battle he'd trained and planned so hard for. It had been a battle meant to avenge his father, and to assure that a great man's life had not been lived in vain. After all, his father had fallen because of a treacherous betrayal he could not have foreseen.

And himself... he'd lost the fight because of simple carelessness.

The Sky Knight rolled onto his back, breathing a heavy sigh. Finn had started to snore next to him. Was this really their life now? Every day, exactly the same? Would they... _die_ here?

No, he couldn't start thinking that way.

"Aerrow, are you awake?"

Her voice hadn't startled him. He didn't think she'd be sleeping either. "Yeah," he said.

He turned his head in Piper's general direction. The moonlight was just bright enough that he could see her eyes peaking out from under Suzi-Lu's toque.

"What are you thinking about?" she whispered.

He smiled. "Cake."

"Me too."

They both laughed, careful not to wake Finn, though he was sleeping so deeply that the pyramid's sudden collapse probably wouldn't have stirred him.

Aerrow took another deep breath of cold air. "I was thinking about my dad," he said after a moment. He wasn't sure if he should say anything at all. He didn't want to bring Piper down into his own despairing depths.

She didn't respond right away. She simply stared at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes. Aerrow couldn't bring himself to hold her stare--parents were a touchy subject--and so moved his gaze back to the ceiling. Enough time passed in silence that he wondered whether she'd finally drifted off to sleep.

"There was something I always wanted to ask you..." she said at last.

Aerrow quickly moved again. "What's that?"

She was frowning. "I wanted to ask, but I didn't know if I wanted the answer."

He furrowed his brows. This conversation could go in a multitude of different directions, but his teenaged mind was settling on one possibility in particular. He was curious, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear this question any more than she wanted to hear the answer.

"Uh, well..." he swallowed back his nerves, "You know you can ask me anything, Piper."

She nodded, and then sighed. "It's about the Oracle."

He froze. _Anything but that, anything but that!_ Ask his opinion on love or babies or emotions or feminine hygiene, anything but the Oracle!

"Uh, Wh-what about it?"

"Well," Piper propped herself up on one elbow, "You said you saw 'something' when you went into the temple, but you never really said what."

"Er, yeah..."

She sighed. "I don't know... I guess with everything that's happened, I'm starting to think about the future, and, well, that question just keeps coming to me."

Aerrow grimaced. Would it be worth it to pretend that he'd suddenly and without warning fallen asleep mid-conversation? Hmmmm. No... probably not a good idea to get on the bad side of someone you're sharing a 10x10 space with.

"The truth is..." Aerrow closed his eyes. "The temple was coming down and... I didn't really see anything. It was all over before I could make any sense of it."

He hoped it was too dark for her to see the giant red letters spelling 'LIAR' across his forehead.

"Oh," she laid back down. "Oh well." Another awkward moment of silence. "I guess there are some things you just... don't need to know, right?"

Aerrow gave a breathy laugh. "Yeah." He turned his face back to the sky. "Definitely."

Piper pulled her coats closer, drawing her knees to her chest and pulling her hands within the jacket sleeves. Even though they'd acquired extra clothing, the space seemed so much colder that night. The team just wasn't the same without Junko and Stork (yes, even Stork added a certain warmth to their group). And Aerrow was always in the company of Radarr, to the point that they were almost a single entity.

She pondered her question again, and then decided to let it go. It was better not to know the future, really. So long as her destiny remained unknown, she could still find strength in the hope that things might change.

OoOoO

"Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go!"

"Junko..."

"It ain't no trick to get rich quick..."

"Stop."

"If you dig dig dig!"

"Stop singing. Stop singing now."

"Dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig, in a mine!--"

"_GAH!_" Stork dropped his pick and grabbed his ears in frustration. The first forty rounds of this oddly truncated song had been more than enough for a friend to endure, but the other miners were now starting to get that murderous glint in their eyes. If Junko went on like this, Stork was prepared to lead the revolt.

"Sorry, Stork, it just helps me work."

Stork shuddered allover. Heigh ho, heigh ho? Oh... great. Now it was stuck in his head. "Where did you _hear_ that!?"

Junko shrugged, "I dunno, I was just kinda making it up as I went."

The Absolute Zeroes were whistling it now, swinging their mining tools together to follow the tune.

Stork grumbled under his breath and went back to poking at the wall with the pickaxe. In the four hours since they'd arrived, he'd managed to carve out a notch about the size of a grapefruit. He wasn't really mining so much as making the cave angry.

Junko, as he'd expected would be the case, had already filled five carts and discovered a number of crystals in the process. The only thing the Merb wanted to hear less than Junko's song was Junko remarking once again: 'Oh! Found another one!'

But at least the Wallop was in good spirits. Stork, on the other hand, wasn't just in a bad mood... he was ready to drop. His arms were screaming in pain and felt like wet noodles, and his legs and back were a twisted, aching mess. He had so far avoided shoveling or pushing carts, mostly by keeping to the far end of their group and out of sight of the Talons charged with watching them, but it was only a matter of time before he lost it.

"Pst, Stork, he's coming back," Junko whispered past a cupped hand.

He'd been informing the Merb every time a certain Talon made his rounds. They'd concluded that his particular Cyclonian--an angry, portly fellow in a darker uniform than the rest--was the top dog in this mining operation. He was without question the loudest, in any case.

"Pick up the pace, _mongrels!_ I shouldn't be able to hear myself over your digging!"

Stork willed himself to work a little harder each time the head Talon passed them by. He tried again now, giving a proper whack to the dent he'd created. A pebble the size of a peach pit stirred and dropped free of the wall.

"Ha!" Stork knelt to pick it up.

Junko nodded approvingly. "Good work, Stork!"

"I'll just... add it to the pile." The Merb turned and set the tiny rock at the top of a dozen other tiny rocks that had fallen loose from Stork's section of the wall (though, to be fair, the sixth tiny rock might have come free due to a blast of wind from the neighbouring tunnel).

"Hey, it's almost big enough to shovel!" Junko smiled.

Stork cringed at the mound of pebbles. "Shovel...?" With a groan, he dragged the pick back to the wall and stared blearily at the pointless mess he was making. A gifted mind like his shouldn't be wasted on something as primitive as hitting big stones to make smaller stones to find shinier stones. He could construct working skimmers in a matter of minutes! He could navigate carrier ships through the Wastelands and deadly rock chasms and Cyclonian drainage pipes!

Junko had started to mumble the song again. Stork turned to face one of the seasoned miners working away like a machine behind him.

"Um, excuse me..."

The worker turned, tired eyes so cold and dead that the carrier pilot couldn't help but shiver. Stork was also trying not to stare at the yellow-green stain on the man's shirt.

"Yes?"

He blinked. "Oh, um, you wouldn't happen to know how long these shifts are... by any chance?"

The man turned back to his work. "Eighteen hours."

Stork nodded very matter-of-factly. "Right! Well... Definitely going to die before then."

Suzi-Lu laughed and took it upon herself to grab a shovel and do away with Stork's pebble pile. She then took the Merb's pick and smashed the hole a few times before she handed it back. "There y'go, softened it up for ya! You don't do much o' this sorta thing, do you?"

Stork glared, jaw set and lip twitching. "I'm more of a _thinker_."

"Yer a hoot is what you are!"

Certain that he was, in fact, not a hoot, Stork started to reply, but a movement in the ceiling stole his attention. Just above their work area, one of the Blocker Crystals had budged from its position, falling a good few inches from where it had previously been tightly nestled. Unsure which one it was now, his eyes darted, trying to again pinpoint the culprit amongst so many identical specimens. Somewhere up there was one of the few working crystals in this blasted cave, and it was preparing to _fall_.

"Dig dig dig dig dig..."

He steadied himself, trying his darndest to ignore Junko's renewed singing. The moment of stillness was making it clearer just how drained and dizzy he was feeling. But there--another movement! The crystal broke free of the ceiling and fell toward him.

"Yes!" Stork saw it land at the base of an empty cart and he darted forward.

"Dig dig dig dig dig dig dig, in a mine!"

He stopped. The Terradon girl had re-appeared from nowhere and scurried in front of him. She grabbed the crystal and dashed madly for one of the many branching tunnels. Stork scrambled after her, slipping behind the cart and hopping over a pile of rocks. She was well ahead of him and already rounding a corner while workers cluttered the area. He stopped short of following her into the tunnel, as the head Talon was striding back in their direction.

"Ohh..." Stork slouched, eyes darkening, "I've changed my mind again. I really don't like you."

Junko stopped his singing and gasped, pulling something free of the wall. "Oh! Found another one!"

OoOoO

The other Storm Hawks had seized whatever sleep they could and once again woken at first light, disappointed to find they were still missing three friends. The threat of all-consuming gloom was lurking in every corner and an hour of miserable quiet had finally been brought to a halt by Finn's whining. It was agreed that some form of entertainment had to be located, lest they all fall victim to a serious case of cabin fever.

Sitting around a pile of broken bed pieces, after twenty minutes of debate and forced imagination, Finn and Piper waited for Aerrow to take his turn in the game they'd devised. The Sky Knight was known for taking these sorts of things far too seriously, and each round of play had so far been held up by his internal strategizing.

"Just _move_ already, dude," Finn sighed, head resting in one hand.

"All right, all right..." Aerrow slid his splintered game piece forward. "There."

All three of them leaned in to examine the playing field. Finn groaned and let his arms fall to his sides. "Man! You sunk my battle cruiser!"

"Ha!"

Piper shook her head. "Battle cruiser? I thought we were playing _checkers_."

Aerrow shrugged. "I wasn't sure what we were playing. I just hoped one of you would tell me if I won."

They all exchanged expressions of bewilderment.

"Well," Piper leaned back and glanced outside. "I think we managed to kill a whole five minutes. Any other ideas?"

The three of them sighed and fell back into pondering as a light breeze moved by the outside bars. The bits of wood had been their best option, as the coats were too important to use for amusement and no one wanted to imagine any games played with the bucket.

"I spy?" Finn offered.

Piper shrugged. It was better than nothing. "I guess. Though I have a feeling this will be over pretty quick. You go first, Finn."

"Sweet." He eyed the cell, lips pursed in deep concentration. They settled, as always, on the perfect target. Eureka! "All righty. I spy, with my kickass sharpshooter eye, something that is grey--"

"Bucket."

"Aw."

Piper laughed and crossed her legs. "My turn! Okay... I spy, with my _keen scientific_ eye, something that is... blue--"

"Jacket."

She pointed a sarcastic finger. "Bingo."

Finding this game at least partially more amusing due to it's general ridiculousness, Aerrow looked for another obvious item he could spy. "Hmmm. I spy, with my modest, regular eye--"

"Laaaame--"

"Something that is..." Aerrow stopped and paled. He was looking outside, and his modest, regular eyes had just gone very wide, and then very angry. He glowered. "_Dark Ace_."

Piper blinked. "Um, that's not how the game is played Aerrow, and that's not very funny, either."

The Sky Knight jumped to his feet and assumed a fighting stance. Startled, Piper and Finn stood as well and swiveled to face the outer bars. There, jumping from his skimmer, the Dark Ace himself landed on the outside terrace and approached the bars of their little top-floor cell.

"Are you bored, Aerrow?" He grinned, oozing with arrogance.

The Sky Knight was fuming. Finn and Piper were at a loss of what to do. Fighting was out of the question and pretty much impossible from within their cell.

"What do you want?" Aerrow spat.

The Dark Ace powered up his weapon and held it for no other reason than to illustrate his current state of superiority. Aerrow's eyes were darting from the eyes of his sworn enemy to the double blade, calculating just what might happen if he tried to grab it. Nothing much, he determined, even if he did succeed... he'd still be stuck inside of a cage, brandishing a weapon for only as long as it took the guards on duty to swarm in and snatch it away.

"A thank you would be nice," the Dark Ace chuckled. "We're keeping you _alive_, after all."

"_Why!?_" Piper chimed in, taking a step forward. "What's the _point_ of this? Are you planning to torture us? Laugh at us? Fight with us? Or just continue to play these stupid games? _What?_"

The Dark Ace laughed and reached for something at his back. "How about... 'all of the above'?"

"Look out!" Aerrow shouted and grabbed Piper's shoulder, his other arm reaching for Finn. He pushed them both against the wall just in time to avoid being hit by a strange red-and-black ball that rolled through the bars and into the middle of the cell.

Their frantic eyes watched it, the three of them refusing to budge. The ball was _ticking_.

"Oh god, Aerrow, what do we do..." Piper shrieked in a whisper. He didn't know. He didn't know! A bomb? Would they really detonate a _bomb?_

The ball released a high-pitched series of beeps and opened at the top, causing Aerrow to wince and push his friends to the floor, ready to shield them from a potential explosion. Eyes shut and turned away from the weapon, he couldn't distinguish what was happening when, instead of sounding a blast, the thing started to hiss.

The Dark Ace had mounted his ride again. "We thought the three of you might benefit from a sleep aid," he laughed.

Aerrow heard the skimmer leave. He allowed himself to look up at the hissing ball, horrified to see that it was spewing red smoke allover the floor. "Stand up! Stand up and don't--don't, uh..."

Finn and Piper stood. The sharpshooter cringed at the sight of the red gas covering their feet. "Don't what, dude? _Breathe?_"

"Maybe it'll just pour outside!" Piper cried.

But it was too late. Aerrow could smell it. An oddly sweet chemical smell. The world was already starting to slow, and his senses were rapidly giving out. Finn and Piper were only a blur in a haze of red, and the hissing no more than rushing background white noise within his rattled brain. His mind was confused and grappling for a resolution to something he didn't quite understand. What was happening? He wasn't even sure where he was now. He saw the forms of his friends collapse to the floor, but barely registered their presence. He had to get out of there! But movement was proving impossible. With a final gasp that echoed through the cell, he fell forward into a black abyss.

OoOoO

Aerrow flew overhead, trying to obtain a better view of the squadrons that had so far arrived for battle. While there were a number of them parked and waiting in the gorge, a good half of those he expected had yet to arrive. He dove and landed, riding up next to Finn.

"More should be coming," he informed the blonde, who looked eager to get this show on the road.

"Did you radio Stork?"

Aerrow paused, and then gave a half nod. "Uh, yeah. He should be waiting for my cue."

"Ha! This is gonna be great. They won't know what hit 'em!"

Aerrow smiled. He was feeling good about this too. The rest of the Sky Knight squadrons would arrive any minute, then Stork would fly through the Cyclonian convoy and lure as many of them into the gorge as possible. Waiting to pounce, Aerrow would lead the charge and they'd take their enemies out one by one as they tried to navigate the narrow chasm. Once the smaller targets were dealt with, then the real fun would begin.

"Here they come!" Finn motioned to the purple-streaked clouds ahead. The last of their allies had made it and were heading quickly to the rendezvous point. Aerrow turned his ride to make room.

And then it all went wrong.

"Dude, there's fire!"

Aerrow swerved and his heart stopped. Like a swarm of insects, Talons had descended on the incoming squadrons. Three fireballs erupted and took out the center line.

Piper flew over in her Heliscooter. "The Cyclonians found our explosives! We have to help them, Aerrow!"

It was all wrong. They weren't planning to fight out in the open. Not yet.

"Oh man..." Finn's excitement had turned to terror. "Is that the Condor with them?"

It was all wrong.

OoOoO

"You, stand there. Good. Be ready, it wears off quickly. Calm down, calm down, everyone will get their chance."

Aerrow's senses were slowly returning to him. His eyes were still in a haze, but he could hear a number of voices around him, feel the gravel beneath his face, and he could smell the distinctive odor of sweat and blood.

"All right, what did I tell you? Everyone at the ready."

"... Aerrow?" Piper's voice came from somewhere behind him. It was just what he needed to fight off the last of the anesthetic.

"I'm here!" He pushed up with his palms flat, and felt an odd weight around his throat. He fingered the metal collar; the same paralysis-inducing collar they'd used on Radarr.

It was damp and muggy, wherever they were. His other senses fully regained, he was pretty sure his eyes should be working, but he could still only see blackness before him. "What is this? Piper! Finn! Can you see anything?"

"Nada."

He felt someone grab his arm. Piper. He sighed; at least they were all still alive and together. But... _where?_

"Could we have the first team come forward? Excellent."

Aerrow spun in the shadows. The voice was coming from somewhere ahead of them, but it was muffled. They had to be contained somewhere, underneath the floor or trapped in a box, the voice was just on the other side of them. He felt Finn brush his leg as the sharpshooter crawled forward in search of the same voice.

"Dude, this is creeping me out--"

"Shhh..."

Aerrow groped forward with an outstretched hand and felt something flat. Finn and Piper did the same, and the three of them pressed their ears to the gritty surface.

"Today your trainers will be the Storm Hawks!"

Piper gasped. A chorus of booing erupted around them, causing the wall ahead to shudder.

"I don't like the sound of that!" Finn backed off across the stone floor and bumped into another wall. There was no way out.

Before Aerrow had a chance to ponder that announcement, he saw a crack of light at his knees. The wall was moving up in front of them. Nowhere to run, they could only stand and watch their fate revealed to them in the form of blinding lights and a large underground arena. To the sides towered a cage of electric bars and stands of jeering Talons behind.

And in front of them, five uniquely uniformed and impatiently waiting fighters...

"Dude, Aerrow, look!"

... As well as each of the Stork Hawks' weapons, left out on the ground, charged and ready for use.

--

_I had a hell of a time trying to decide exactly where to cut this one off. Oh, and, I apologize profusely to anyone who now has "Heigh Ho" stuck in their head..._


	6. Chapter 6: Heroes and Victims

_Thanks again, as always, for all of the encouraging and helpful reviews! I made a few fixes here and there based on suggestions to clear up any confusing bits. I'll also be italicizing flashbacks from now on (thanks Ambrel!)._

_defectivebrainstorm - Haha, I'd rather be in the mines too, really. And yes, must love the Zeroes! That's gotta be my favourite episode. "We hollered real loud!"_

_Emil the Fallen - I bet Junko tastes like biscotti._

_Hopefully this chapter will make clear what happened during the final battle (though expect a few more flashbacks to come). Hooray for the first real fight scene!_

--

**Chapter 6 - Heroes and Victims**

As much as I don't like fighting... there's at least one additional scenario that I dislike much, much more. And that unlikable scenario would be the _Merb In Distress_. It's one thing to get caught off your guard, forced to think quickly to overcome your enemies; even possibly engaging in, _geh_, vile hand-to-hand combat. It's a far different thing to have all of that happen... and still fail, and then find yourself in need of _saving_.

While it doesn't happen as often as it probably should--and it is only by a string of miraculous coincidences that that happens to be the case--I just can't stand that kind of vulnerability. It's no secret that I like to feel safe, but I'm sensitive too, all right? I have my dignity. Even when I'm running away...

Sure, I sometimes wonder what it would feel like to be the one always charging in, weapons blazing... playing the hero and saving the day.

But then I remind myself how easily one could lose a limb, or an eye, or skid across the floor in such as way as to have a splinter imbedded in the skin, leading to a gruesome infection and a lengthy, painful demise.

I don't need to be a hero... I really hate splinters.

But, I don't want to be the victim either...

OoOoO

_Aerrow, Finn, Junko, and Piper flew ahead of the other squadrons, pushing their rides to the limit in order to reach the others in time. The heat from the fireballs was still hanging in the air, and more explosions were still sounding somewhere within the smoke. The sounds were deafening; screaming and shouting and engines whipping past their ears, sputtering into death, and spiraling through the clouds below._

_"We can't stay here!" Aerrow shouted. He was already losing sight of the other Storm Hawks within the billowing black. "We're sitting ducks!"_

_Piper's voice sounded somewhere ahead of him. "They need us!"_

_"He's right, Piper, I can't see! I can't--"_

_Finn was cut off by another explosion. Aerrow veered right to avoid the broiling heat and dove into the blind cloud layer. He caught the sharpshooter by the wrist just before the sheer face of the gorge came back into view. Junko was behind him, having also nosedived to try and rescue Finn._

_"Aerrow!" The Wallop panted, pointing a finger skyward, "Those explosives were launching from the Condor!"_

_The Sky Knight paused for only a second, and then handed Finn off to Junko. He shot straight up through the smoke and flames and ferocious combat, dodging canon fire and falling debris. He rose above the mayhem and caught sight of the carrier. Sure enough, the deck was littered with Talons, and each was in the process of igniting further explosives._

_Immediately and without thinking, his hand went to the radio, panic on his face and infecting his voice. "Stork! What's happening? Where are you?"_

_More static, and more fear. Someone else was walking onto the deck amongst the Talons. A kicking and wriggling green figure was held firmly in their grasp._

_The radio sprung to life. "Hello, Aerrow!" That voice. That _hated_ voice. "I must thank you for sending us such a helpful warning! And just after we'd found your stash of explosives, too. It must be our lucky day!"_

_Aerrow didn't give the Dark Ace any response. He wouldn't plead. He wouldn't grovel!_

_"To think, we might have actually been defeated without your help! Of course, I'll have to ask you to call off any further attacks, especially if you want your Merb back in one piece--"_

_He heard Stork shout: "Don't, Aerrow--!" before the pilot was silenced. Aerrow could see plainly from his vantage point that Stork had been forced to the ground._

_More explosions behind him. More shrieking. More skimmers twirling wildly through the clouds with missing pilots. Aerrow shut his eyes and released an angry scream._

_"All right! All right, we give up! Don't hurt anyone else!"_

OoOoO

Aerrow, Finn, and Piper were hesitating, and the lack of action was earning them a healthy number of boos from the audience of Talons. Their opponents, who seemed to be no more than Cyclonians in special combat attire, had their weapons at the ready and were growing tired of waiting.

"Trainers..." Aerrow muttered under his breath. He was so close to his blades; it was taking every inch of his being to keep from diving for them and hacking away at everything in sight.

Piper turned to him, her eyes wide with fear and uncertainty. "Trainers? Aerrow?"

"They want us to fight their Talons. That's why we're here. We're _tools_ for training..."

Sudden understanding swept across the faces of Finn and Piper. They too eyed their weapons, but fought the urge to take them.

One of their opponents stepped forward, swinging two sets of blazing pink nunchucks. She was the only female in the group of five; tall and slender and smiling a devil's smile.

"You're the Storm Hawks, aren't you?" she asked in a low voice. "Don't you have any fight left in you? Or do we have to wait around for a _third_ incarnation?"

Aerrow glared back. The Cyclonian fighters were approaching, and he knew that he had but two options. He could stand there and allow himself to be beaten to a pulp in a sea of hateful jeers and mocking laughter... or he could have a little fun and show these pathetic minions with their matching jumpsuits just how impossible a task it was to try and break the Storm Hawks. Even outnumbered and missing three of their teammates, they would return some of the humiliation they themselves had suffered during the last two days.

The look in Finn's eyes told Aerrow that his wing-man was thinking the same thing. They nodded at one another, and then looked to Piper. Her face had also melted from fear to that of passionate anger. The arena fell into hushed silence.

"_GO!_" Aerrow shouted and rolled forward, grabbing his blades and vaulting over the forward fighter. He landed behind his opponent, swiveled, and kicked her feet out from under her.

Finn and Piper ran to the outsides of the group. Piper snatched her staff while skidding through the gravel on her knees and swung it into the side of a stocky Cyclonian, sending him off-balance and into the fighter next to him. He released a shout, but was back on his feet quickly, brandishing a flashing yellow whip which caught hold of the end of Piper's staff and threw it into the air.

"Oh, no you _don't!_" She hissed. Crouching first, she leapt up, hands grasping the Cyclonian's shoulders as her feet whipped through the air and caught the staff in mid-fall. She pushed off into a backflip, toes distributing the weapon to her waiting fingers, and landed facing Aerrow.

"Nice!" he smiled while slashing at a pair of twirling nunchucks.

Piper returned his grin and spun quickly, anticipating the stocky fighter having caught up with her again. She drove the staff into his stomach, flipped it around, and landed another blow in the middle of the man's forehead. He stumbled momentarily, bleary-eyed, and then fell onto his back.

Finn had his crossbow in hand and was running along the edge of the arena. Having just three arrows at his disposal, his only strategy was to try and avoid attacks until he saw an opening perfect enough to fire upon. However, being in such close proximity to the audience, he was attracting a lot of angry noise, as well as a number of thrown trash items. One of the seated Talons heaved a half-eaten chocolate bar through the electrified cage and it skipped off the top of Finn's head. He turned to yell, but his blue eyes marveled instead.

"Oh man, you just made a _big_ mistake!" He grabbed the candy and raised it to the heavens. "Finn's got _sugar_ now!"

Aerrow was getting tired of batting at nunchucks, but they weren't quite as exhausting as the pompous look he was receiving from the woman wielding them. He grunted, brought his blades together, and caught the end of the chucks. Flipping forward, he pulled them free from her hands and kicked her square in the jaw. She screamed and fell back, wiping the blood from her lip as she staggered to her feet.

"Kicking a girl in the face... So the Storm Hawks fight _dirty_ now, do they?"

Aerrow smiled. "Lady, you don't know dirty until you've shared a bucket with a Wallop."

Finn was racing through the chaos now, still chewing through the sticky caramel center of his gooey chocolate bar prize. He dodged a double-blade by rolling onto his side, coming to a stop just in time for a pair of pink nunchucks to land in his lap.

"Sweet!" He hooked the crossbow at his back and grabbed the fallen weapon, standing and swinging it wildly and with absolutely no skill. It spun in clumsy, stupid circles above his head. However, to Finn's good fortune, the Cyclonian that had been intending to smash him over the head with a mace received instead an unexpected nunchuck to the eye. The fighter recoiled and ran screaming, directionless, away from the sharpshooter and straight into the electric bars.

Completely oblivious to his victory, Finn spun the chucks a few more times and then caught sight of the conveniently discarded mace. "Well well well, don't mind if I do!" He grabbed this too, swallowed his chocolate, and released a strangled battle cry before rushing headlong into the fray with his ridiculous hodgepodge of weaponry flailing.

Piper was locked in combat with a shorter Cyclonian, who was also wielding a staff. He was skilled enough that neither had managed to land a blow.

"Getting tired?" The Cyclonian snickered and spun sideways. Piper caught his staff once again and set into another quick exchange of blocked hits.

She smiled sweetly. "Oh, no, your Dark Ace made sure we were good and rested before we got here."

He faltered at this response and she seized the moment, hitting him once against the shoulder. She spun around again, and delivered a quick but fierce jab to his throat. Her opponent wheezed and she brought the staff down on top of his head for the final knock out.

Once down, she waved her fingers at the fallen fighter. "Sweet dreams!"

In the few moments that had passed, Finn had somehow found himself up against the largest of the five fighters; bulky, hugely muscled, and towering a good foot and a half above the blonde's head. Finn was pointlessly swinging the nunchucks at the massive Cyclonian's tree-trunk legs, doing about as much damage as he might if his weapon were made of old cheese. He was receiving a barrage of oafish, deep-voiced laughter in return.

"Trying to tire me out, huh?" Finn laughed, dropping the chucks and taking up the mace. "Not gonna happen, dude! I've got energy to _spare!_"

He lifted the heavy mace and prepared to attack, but a thick, sweaty hand contacted his forehead and held him back just far enough that all of his swings fell inches short of reaching their target.

Finn continued this futile mace-swinging effort for several minutes, finally dropping the second weapon where he'd dropped the nunchucks. He paused to catch his breath. "Okay... now I'm tired."

The Cyclonian laughed again and gave an easy shove to his now assumedly unarmed opponent. Finn took a few steps back, wiped his brow with a sleeve, and drew out his crossbow. Before the giant fighter could react, the sharpshooter fired an arrow directly at his adversary's undefended groin.

The shrill scream that followed caused every fighter and jeering Talon to pause for a second and, with the exception of Piper and the female Cyclonian, wince in sympathy.

Finn and Piper stood by now, realizing that Aerrow was the only one of them still fighting. Some instinct told them to wait quietly and let him finish this on his own, lest he miss out on another good story to tell later. Surely Radarr was going to love hearing about this strange encounter whenever they saw him again.

"Looks like you're the only one left," Aerrow connected his blades and intensified the speed with which he was throwing hits.

His opponent only smiled, her eyes hidden behind black goggles and her short black hair falling over a red bandana. She motioned for him to come at her.

Aerrow obliged, jumping up to attempt his Lightning Claw maneuver. The move was flawless, as always, all except for the fact that he no longer had a target. The lightning energy hit the gravel, and he landed a moment later, glancing left and right in search of his opponent.

"Aerrow, _look out!_"

He turned just in time to receive a heavy boot to the chest, which sent him skidding through the dirt. A second later she was standing over him, his own blade clutched in her fingers and held dizzyingly close to his throat. She smiled the same infuriating smile.

"You're no match for me, Aerrow..." she laughed.

His face had been red with rage, but something suddenly caused him to relax. Finn and Piper were ready to rush in, but he waved them away with two fingers from his position on the ground. Finally, the voice they'd been trying so hard to locate upon waking sounded again through a collection of speakers overhead.

"Once more the Storm Hawks yield a sure victory in favour of saving one of their own. What a pity!"

The audience joined together in cheering laughter.

"The Cyclonians win! Put those kids back in their cage."

Aerrow felt the same crushing force of another Pressure Crystal. Together with Finn and Piper, he flew back into the pen where the spectacle had all started. The stone door came down again and left them in darkness, and silence, but for the muffled voice still transmitting over the speakers.

"Team 7 will be training tonight at nineteen-hundred hours against the remnants of the Rex Guardians, don't miss this one!"

OoOoO

"Stork?"

Something heavy prodded him in the shoulder. The Merb grumbled and swiped the nuisance away. His hand then fell dead at his side.

The nuisance returned. "Stoo-oork!"

"Leave me alone."

The nuisance grumbled, and then paused to consider a new tactic. "Oh! Um, there's a, uh... Nordian brain spider on your leg! Look out!"

Not going to work. "Uh, everybody _knows_ brain spiders are only found on Amazonia."

"C'mon, Stork. You're gonna get hurt if you don't come back to working. The break ended five minutes ago."

Stork opened his eyes and glared up at the Wallop. "I'm already hurt, Junko. Do you think I'd voluntarily lie down on top of a _shovel?_ My body stopped cooperating after hour twelve."

"Aw, you're just upset because that Greemus sneezed on you."

He shivered. "Don't remind me... I can already feel the microbes reproducing on my skin."

Junko moved aside to allow Suzi-Lu to come forward. The Blizzarian rolled her eyes, grabbed Stork, and hefted him back to his feet. She rested a hand on her hip and tsk-tsked at his arched posture and wobbly legs. He faltered to one side and Junko caught him before he had a chance to land on the shovel a second time.

"Well there, what's the problem, eh?" Suzi-Lu showed a slight concern, but mostly just seemed to be amused by the theatricality of Stork's behaviour.

Stork sighed. "Tired, dizzy, shaky... Clear first symptoms of tunneling organ mites. They're allover the bread here..."

"Those critters?" She laughed and spared a glance to the other Absolute Zeroes, "Ahh, we get 'em in our fur all the time, eh? Nothin' but oversized _fleas_. They're better eatin' than the bread itself!"

Stork quickly shook that imagery away. "As appetizing as that sounds, I'd... rather not take my chances."

"Well, if I had to take a guess there, I'd say you've just got the first symptoms of bein' real hungry. When'd you last eat, eh?"

He pondered this. The day before the battle he'd been sick with fear and had avoided any reminder of the deadliness to come by locking himself in his room and reading a book about foot fungus. The day of the battle he'd spent the early morning hours washing and disinfecting his feet, after which he'd paced the bridge of the Condor and worked on his will. Assuming it was now morning again...

"Uh, three days ago? Today would be day four."

Junko, Radarr, and the Absolute Zeroes stared at him in disbelief. Stork looked back at them with the sort of indignant expression that said they were clearly the crazy ones.

"... What?"

"Well fer someone so concerned about gettin' sick, you sure have some funny eating habits." Suzi-Lu caught sight of a new set of Talons just starting their shift. She reached for the shovel that had recently been acting as Stork's uncomfortable makeshift bed and resumed her work.

Stork gave a dismissive shrug. "Of the many _thousands_ of mad, gruesome, _painful_ ways to die, starvation isn't the worst way to go... um, well, that's assuming it isn't coupled with an infestation of _internal parasites_. And in this place it... almost certainly would be..." He trailed off, having done a sound job of confusing himself and whatever point he was trying to make, but he was fairly certain no one was listening to him anyway.

Junko was fiddling with something at his back, Radarr watching curiously from above. The Wallop pulled out his bread from the day before, now crushed from sitting so long in his back pocket. "Here Stork, you can have this!"

Stork stared blankly but for the telltale twitch. Oh yeah. Just what he wanted. Bread not only infested with giant fleas, but having been in the all-too-friendly proximity of Junko's rear-end for the last twenty-some-odd hours.

"Keep it, Junko. It's yours!" He forced an uncomfortable smile and trudged back to the wall.

To be perfectly honest with himself, his stomach was in such an uncomfortable knot that he'd have probably turned down a fresh plate of Merb cabbage. His mind was wandering at every opportunity, to the point that, at times, he didn't feel wholly present in this awful new reality. Stork might have welcomed that sensation, if not for the fact that every distracting thought was centered around his shameful role in bringing this new reality into creation.

At some point he'd lifted the pickaxe and resumed his tapping of the wall. He was only momentarily aware of this action before his waking eyes were again seeing the skies near Atmosia, the gorge in the distance, the explosions, and the skimmers... dropping beneath the clouds. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the rock with a groan.

It was then that something tried to penetrate the gloomy thoughts, and his mind briefly found its way home again. Junko and Suzi-Lu had started laughing. Stork wasn't the only one to lift his head to investigate; laughter had become such an alien sound to the workers there.

Junko was apparently in the middle of telling a story. "Well, anyway, during the mission he'd somehow got a different toilet brush wedged in each of the wing joints. I needed to take them all apart it get them out!"

Junko was always an excited conglomeration of smiles and wild hand gestures each time he engaged in a bit of storytelling, and this time was no different. The Wallop often imagined that if he were a character in a cartoon series, his stories would likely be accompanied by delightful illustrations and an array of helpful sound effects.

"So I told Finn that I took his _wings_, but he thought I was talking about the barbequed sky wings he had leftover in the fridge!"

More giggling from the Blizzarians.

"So later he and Piper were arguing about the maneuverability of skimmers and heliscooters, and Finn challenges her to fly the obstacle course on Terra Saharr. 'Course Finn was real cocky about it, and had to be the first one off the Condor. It took him a good thirty seconds to realize his skimmer couldn't fly! Piper named herself the winner 'cause she had to maneuver through a school of sky sharks to save him!"

Junko and the Absolute Zeroes shared another laugh, which was further intensified by Radarr's impersonation of Finn screaming and falling from his sky ride. A few additional miners had cracked a smile at the light-hearted story. Even Stork had allowed himself a half grin.

"Boy," Junko chuckled, "was my face red! Heh, Finn's was too, 'cause he kinda got grazed by a shark on the way down."

Suzi-Lu tossed a blue crystal into the nearest cart. "Oh dear, that sounds like somethin' my boys would do on _purpose!_ They go through a good three Ice Grinders a month, eh?"

"Rock on! _Woo!_" The two boys attempted a high-five, though one of them used a shovel instead, which sent the other spiraling sideways.

The jovial outbursts had caught the attention of the head Talon. From the other side of the cave he'd turned, and started to make his way toward the miners that had dared have fun with their work.

"I'm curious," Stork spoke up, and immediately all eyes were on him. He cleared his throat and shrank back a little. "Uh, with all of the... _intentional crashing_... did you happen to have a mechanic? The costs of replacing Ice Grinders every month would have to have been staggering."

Suzi-Lu looked thoughtful. "Well that was Billy Rex! He mighta seemed like a real knucklehead, but he was a whiz with tools and mechanical stuff too, eh? Kinda like you there, Stork, 'course he could use a shovel." She stopped suddenly and her tone went quiet. "I, uh, guess we's gonna be searchin' for a new Mr. Fix-It once we get outta here."

The Zeroes all bowed their heads and slowly returned to work. Even Junko had realized the time for joking had passed, filling the last of his carts and pushing them into line with the others.

Stork's eyes had widened and his gaze dropped to the floor. The uncomfortable twisting in his stomach had moved into his chest like a fist wrenching at his heart. It was really hitting home now. They hadn't just lost the _battle_ because of him... people had lost their _lives_. Good people! He'd led the Cyclonians right into the line of approaching Sky Knight squadrons as though releasing a pack of hungry Trackbeasts on cornered prey.

His grip on the pickaxe tightened. His teeth clenched. Using whatever strength he had left, he began to pound away at the wall, again and again, furious with himself for ever letting his guard down. His wonderful, glorious, dependable guard that he'd so carefully built up and maintained for so long without faltering.

He'd had no right to complain about being here. This was a punishment he fully deserved.

"You! Blizzarian dogs!"

Stork looked up suddenly, his heart pounding and his head swimming. The top-dog Talon, Big T himself, was rounding on them, pushing his way through a sea of cowering workers. He marched straight up to the Zeroes.

"I know your heads are full-up with ice chips, but try to understand this..." The Talon grabbed Suzi-Lu by the wrist and pulled her to the ground at a painful angle. "This ain't a _party!_ You keep your muzzles shut, you do your work, or you won't get _fed_. Did I dumb that down enough?"

Suzi-Lu gave a weak nod, face scrunched up in pain from the hold he had her in. Across the tracks, Junko wiped the dust from his hands and turned just in time to see his friend on the ground. His brows furrowed. Immediately he hunched over and released an angry roar, charging forward across the tracks to save her. Unfortunately for the Wallop, the collar he was wearing was meant for situations just like these. One of the nearby Talons caught sight of his attempt and quickly pressed a button that sent Junko head-over-heals, paralyzed limbs flailing like a rolling ragdoll. He came to a dead stop next to Big T, his still-working eyes so furious that they looked almost capable of popping free of their cranial prison and pummeling their target into submission.

"See?" The head Talon sneered, lifting the Blizzarian Sky Knight by the collar. "Not much to laugh about down here."

Stork couldn't take this anymore. "_Stop it!_" he snapped. He dropped the pick and staggered forward, eyes ablaze. "Leave her _alone_."

Big T stopped at the sound of an angry voice and turned to inspect the skinny, shivering Merb before him. Straight-faced at first, the bullying slave-driver suddenly gave in to great, hysterical laughter. "Well I guess I was wrong! There's at least one thing to laugh about!"

"Do you know what _I_ find funny?" Stork grinned, his face darkening.

"Oh, I can't wait to hear it!"

"Well..." The Merb paused to take a breath. "I find it terribly funny that an overweight blowhard such as yourself, in any other scenario, without the electric collars and dozens of mindless henchman ready to rush in and protect his unfulfilled and worthless existence, would, without question, find himself so _humiliated_ in defeat when pitted against the, uh, Blizzarian dog you're currently _manhandling_, that he would lay down at her feet and beg for mercy, forgiveness, or at the very least, a chance to fulfill the role of her cowering pet; a collared, caged, _inferior species_, left to dig pointless holes in the snow."

The cave had fallen into silence. Stork felt the stares of hundreds of eyes and fought with every last inch of his will to remain conscious.

The Talon released Suzi-Lu to the other Absolute Zeroes and rolled up his sleeve. Stork swallowed, paled, and tried to reassure himself that it was worth it.

"And... this would be the part where I get punched in the face..." He backed against the wall and shut his eyes with a whimper.

At least he didn't feel much when the Talon landed his blow.

OoOoO

Returning to their cell had not been an enjoyable experience. While Aerrow, Finn, and Piper had insisted they'd go quietly, the guards in charge of emptying the pens had still thought it best to use another anesthetic-filled bomb on the adrenaline-charged Storm Hawks. Waking up an hour later in their now familiar cage, they'd immediately felt the effects of being gassed twice in a single morning, and had all found a brand new use for the bucket... to toss their cookies (with the exception of Finn, who tossed a caramel-filled candy bar).

On the upside, their food and water had been delivered while they were unconscious, and once the nausea had passed, they enjoyed a meal of day-old rice and jerky lizards (which, not altogether surprising, tasted just like chicken). This time, neither Piper or Aerrow said a thing when Finn finished his share straight away. They'd both done the same. There was little point in storing it, and they were all ravenous from fighting.

Finn held the food bag with an uncertain look on his face. "Should we, uh... save some for them?"

It wasn't meant to be rude, or even the least bit selfish. Finn appeared genuinely concerned. Stork, Junko, and Radarr had been gone for nearly a day, and the question as to whether they'd be returning was really starting to nag at the backs of their minds.

"Let's hold onto it for now," Aerrow said, trying his hardest to sound optimistic. "We know they come to collect the bag and canteen at night... and if they aren't back by then..." he sighed.

Piper lowered her gaze. She couldn't fight off the negative thoughts. What if something bad had happened to Stork, Junko, and Radarr? What if they'd all been wrong about the mines? What if the Cyclonians had done something far worse to them, simply because they were Storm Hawks?

All three of them turned their heads to the interior bars. Someone was coming up the stairs. Hearts in their throats, they moved forward as close as they could to watch, wait, and hope.

A moment later, Suzi-Lu stepped into the hall, followed by her boys. Her gaze was cast at the floor, her whole demeanor having shifted from light-heartedness to someone badly downtrodden. As she passed the first cell, she lifted her eyes and glanced at the three observing Storm Hawks. The look she gave them was that of confusion and desperation, but she followed it up with a nod of confirmation to put their minds at ease. Yes, they were back. Yes, your friends are coming too.

The Blizzarians were taken back to their cell, and the escorting Talons moved again to the stairs to aid the next line of shackled miners. Junko came into view, acting entirely submissive compared to the uproar he'd left in. Radarr was once again chained in place, but still remained perched on the Wallop's shoulder. The only one lacking chains or bonds of any kind was Stork, who was half-conscious in Junko's arms and hardly capable of causing any disturbance greater than defiantly falling down the stairs.

For once, the bars opened and closed without an altercation.

"You're back!" Piper squealed and ran at Junko, hugging him tightly, renewed tears on her cheeks.

The Wallop gave a warm smile in return. Any tension he might have been harbouring quickly melted away in the company of his best friends.

"We're all right!" Junko laughed, easing himself onto the floor. "Just real tired. Mining is harder than it looks, you know."

"Oh my gosh," Piper had Stork around the shoulders and the Merb was attempting some form of garbled protest as she looked him over. "What happened to him? His ear is bleeding!"

Junko positioned his exhausted green friend against the wall. "Well, he, uh... he got into a fight with one of the guards."

"_Stork did!?_" Aerrow, Finn, and Piper said together.

"He got angry and insulted the Talon in charge."

Piper cleared her throat to hide a giggle. "Oh, well, that sounds more like him."

Junko stretched and then set to work rubbing his sore muscles. "The Talon tried to punch him, but Stork kind of fainted at the same time, so he got punched in the ear instead."

"My ear..." Stork winced and shakily fingered the tattered remains. "My beautiful ear..."

Aerrow raised an eyebrow. "You sure he's all right?"

They watched as the Merb swayed on the spot, closed his eyes, and slowly slid from the wall onto the floor, fast asleep before his head hit the ground. Junko gave a nervous laugh and explained that Stork's extreme anxiety, germophobia, and hypochondria had resulted in, among a number of other obsessive reactions, an irrational, self-imposed fast. He then reached enthusiastically for the food bag.

"Oh, rice!"

"All right," Aerrow was grinning despite a mixed bag of other emotions, "eat up, get some rest, someone feed Stork before he starves to death in the corner, and then it's down to business."

Junko looked up whilst in the process of turning the all-purpose pieces of wood into chopsticks. "Business?"

Aerrow nodded. "I want to know everything about the mines. Every little detail, no matter how insignificant. You're back with us now, so the plan has to go ahead."

"And what about our little... early morning adventure, Aerrow?" Piper asked, ever-so-sweetly.

Finn nodded and added his two cents, if only because he hadn't said anything for several paragraphs--er, minutes. "Yeah, how does _that_ fit into the plan, dude?"

To their surprise, Aerrow's smile widened.

"It might just be our ticket out of here."

--

_Let them sleep Aerrow, for god's sake! You're worse than Big T._


	7. Chapter 7: Intermission Missions

_Sorry about the wait! I've had most of this chapter completed for a while, but the rest of it was being uncooperative. Thanks again to everyone who commented! You make this all the more enjoyable!_

_defectivebrainstorm - You have my permission to enter the story and feed Stork, haha. He was not made for prison life, poor fellow._

_Emil the Fallen - Lord, you made me blush! Thanks so much for the sweet comment._

_I apologize for a lot of talking and not so much action in this chapter. As the title suggests, we're having a little bit of an intermission here. ;)_

--

**Chapter 7 - Intermission Missions**

Junko finally found himself drifting off to sleep a good forty minutes after returning to the cell from his eighteen-hour shift in the mines. Aerrow likely would have continued to harass him for information if Piper hadn't intervened and explained that, unlike the Sky Knight who was clearly of robotic descent, regular mortals needed sleep to survive.

"All right, I get it," Aerrow smiled, giving the tired Wallop some room to dream. He returned to the other wall with Piper and Finn. "I guess I'm just a little over-eager. Everything's finally falling into place in my mind, but, well, it needs some organization."

Piper gave her chin a thoughtful tap. "Well you know, we might be able to help you with that if you actually told us what you were planning."

"What she means to say is, _she'd_ be able to help you," Finn clarified, "and the rest of us will just wait around for orders."

Piper smiled. "Hey, you said it, not me."

"You were thinking it."

Aerrow smiled at his friends, without whom he might easily have given up already. He ruffled the fur on Radarr's head, a smile of pure relief upon his face. With his team complete, his co-pilot back on his shoulder, the tide felt as though it was changing at last. The miniscule favour of good fortune was all that he needed to freshly tackle the obstacles in his path.

"I don't want to get too far ahead of myself--we can still learn more from Junko and Stork--but the basic plan is simple," Aerrow paused and his cheeky grin returned. "The Cyclonians are going to work for _us_."

Aerrow paused to allow the awesome might of his enhanced brainpower and supreme strategizing skills to envelope and amaze his audience.

Or perhaps not.

Finn and Piper exchanged a mutual expression of concern for their Sky Knight's sanity. It was likely that the confinement, extreme climate, and a surplus of sand in private places where there should not be sand was starting to wear on his mind.

Aerrow saw that he was losing them. "No, really, think about it!" He lowered his voice on the off-chance that someone might be listening from the outside terrace. "Who's currently in charge of training all of Cyclonia's soldiers?"

Piper's eyes widened. "We are! But how can we--?"

"We can use this, Piper. We can teach them how to fight so that in the end we can't lose!"

"Dude, you're making my head hurt," Finn frowned. "Say that again?"

Aerrow tried a different approach. He turned to the sharpshooter. "What's your weak spot, Finn? And no joking around. In a fight, what slows you down?"

Finn rubbed the back of his neck as he thought this over. "I dunno... too many targets, I guess. I can only shoot so fast, y'know?" He followed this up with a bit of a pout. "But I'm still really good at it!"

"Great! So when we fight the Talons, we train them to come at you one at a time."

Piper shook her head. "You still haven't explained how, Aerrow. Why would they listen to us? We're not their teachers. We're fighting to stay alive!"

"Are we?" Aerrow struggled to keep the urgency in his voice to a minimum. "We would have clobbered those Talons this morning if I hadn't stopped the fight. But the idea hit me right at the end while Pink Nunchucks was standing there gloating. You know I never would have given up that easily, Piper! I saw openings. I could have turned the tables. But now she thinks it's that much easier to defeat me!"

He waited for Piper to argue, but she had nothing to say. It seemed she was finally starting to understand how this might actually work. That, or she was too busy establishing her next brutal line of questioning. Aerrow continued anyway.

"If Finn always takes down multiple targets with his crossbow--and we know he can--but purposely loses his cool in single combat, they'll learn to fight him that way. It could work! And Piper, you know exactly when to take advantage of your opponent's fancy maneuvers; all it would take is ignoring that instinct."

"This could take weeks, Aerrow," Piper said. "Months, even! You're talking about conditioning a whole army here."

"Well, if you'd prefer, we could all start digging a hole. But we might run into problems when we crash into the floor underneath us."

"Aerrow..."

"Sorry. I do think we can make this go a lot faster if we can get word to the other Sky Knight squadrons here. We could be working around the clock if everyone's involved."

Piper was still frowning. "We could get hurt doing this..."

Aerrow was still smiling. "I don't think they would let us get too badly run-down. They need us."

Finn's eyes were darting from Sky Knight to Specialist as though watching an extremely tiny tennis match. Piper still looked uncertain of some aspect of this plan, but she kept it to herself for the moment, if only because Aerrow looked so excited by the prospect of action (or in this case, the utter lack thereof). She forced a grin to try and match his own.

"This is just one part of the plan, right?" She tried not to sound too down on his idea, but she had to ask.

Aerrow hesitated. "Uh, well, yeah. I mean, it could change depending on what's going on in the mines. And we'd still need to find an opening. But it's worth a shot, right?"

His unfaltering smile was somehow heartbreaking, but admittedly an encouragement also. If the plan worked, and it was still full of holes and lacking a proper method of escape, they would be sitting pretty. But if it failed...

Piper shook the thought from her mind. She didn't want to fill it with additional what-if scenarios (that was Stork's job, anyhow). Aerrow was trying, at least. And if they were going to be forced to fight, they might as well use it for some means other than just stretching their legs (however she had to admit, it had felt really good to do so).

Though something still bothered her about the idea of purposely losing in order to win, she kept her mouth shut. It might have just been her dignity preemptively taking offense, or maybe some of her hopefulness had dried up in the past couple of days. If anything, she'd take some time to think on it. If any real concerns presented themselves, she and Aerrow could certainly iron them out.

"Sounds a little too crazy to work, dude," Finn smiled, "so it probably will. But it's going to be hell pretending to suck all of the time. The Finn-man naturally radiates waves of awesome!"

"Oh I'm sure you'll manage, Finn," Piper beamed.

Aerrow looked as happy now as when he'd first announced his plan to take down Cyclonia. It was as though the prison had been nothing more than a detour, and they were finally getting back on course. They would do more than just lay waste to enemy carriers and skimmers. This time they would destroy the heart of Cyclonia; they would take them down from the inside out.

OoOoO

"Well, there were a lot of different tunnels, but we just stayed in the main part, really," Junko frowned. It wasn't the answer his Sky Knight wanted, but he was trying his best. He'd been sleeping for several hours and had only been awake for a few minutes; his head was still a bit cloudy.

Aerrow rubbed at his hair as if dusting away the frustration as it surfaced. "How deep do you think you were?"

"Um, not too deep... the tracks ran right up and out. The same ones we saw when we got here. I don't know about the other tunnels though," the large Wallop fidgeted meekly. "Sorry, Aerrow."

"It's all right Junko," the red-head smiled, "it was only your first day there."

"Stork was working closer to the tunnels. Maybe he saw something?" Junko offered.

Aerrow glanced over at the Merb, still asleep against the wall where he'd dropped. They'd moved him an hour before to alleviate what looked to be an incredibly uncomfortable position, and stuffed a coat under his head should he later complain of tiny dust-dwelling squid-mites or something worse contacting his face. Normally the barest hint of unwelcome physical contact would have had Stork jumping out of his skin, but he hadn't so much as opened an eye. It was a little worrying, but then, Aerrow's ten minutes of fighting wasn't exactly much compared to Stork's eighteen hours of hard labour.

"Should we wake him?" Aerrow asked.

Finn raised two hands in dire warning. "Bad idea, dude. He kicks when you startle him. Remember my black eye?"

"The same black eye you told us you got while single-handedly defending the Condor from Murk Raiders during an otherwise peaceful night?" Piper smiled.

"Yeah, well..." Finn folded his arms. "I might have also been trying to paint a mustache on Stork's face while he was sleeping. Y'know, between fighting with the Murk Raiders."

Piper started to scold him, but stopped to ponder the idea of Stork with a mustache. She supressed a snicker. "That actually would have been pretty funny..."

"Ha, I know!"

Aerrow interrupted the conservation, as much as he wanted to hear more, and motioned to the outer bars and the darkening sky beyond. "Black eyes or not, we'd better wake him. They're going to come for the bag and canteen soon. Finn, since you've got the experience, you can do the honours."

"Aw, man!"

The blonde tried to argue with his best sorrowful puppy-dog face, but it was no use (and never had been). Grumbling, he edged over to the wall and Stork's unconscious form (careful to avoid the end that did the kicking). With as much stealth as he could muster, Finn leaned forward and poked the Merb in the face. At once he jumped back to avoid any angry limb-flailing, but his single poke had failed to do the trick. Stork remained sprawled like a dead thing on the sandy floor. A little more courageous the second time around, Finn slid forward on his knees and tried the Merb's slumped shoulder instead. He shook it.

Stork jerked suddenly and kicked the wall, causing Finn to shriek and fall sideways.

"Dude, see what I mean--!"

Before Finn could claim rights to his fulfilled prophecy, Stork gasped and sat upright at an angle, one elbow swinging out to make firm contact with the sharpshooter's cheekbone. Finn gave a second shout, this time his anguished cries muffled by groping hands and a number of choice curse words.

Stork stared around the cell, sleepy and bewildered.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Piper smiled. "I wish I had natural anti-Finn defences like that."

After a moment of bleary blinking, Stork looked back at the blonde, whose face was already bruising. "Ah." His mouth twitched into a grin. "Well, I've crafted it over the years. Mostly a reaction to life on Terra Merb, though Finn sneaking around your room at night is equally as alarming as most natural disasters..."

"Last time I do you guys a favour," Finn grumbled.

Radarr climbed onto the sharpshooter's shoulders and patted him on the head. Junko and Piper were trying not to laugh. Feeling for Finn's shattering dignity, Aerrow cleared his throat and turned his attention to Stork.

"How're you feeling?" he asked.

Stork shrugged, which caused a sudden spasm of horrible pain to shoot up and down his spine. He tensed and winced and stifled a whimper, each additional movement apparently further angering his brutalized joints and muscles. Everything hurt. His head was throbbing, his torn ear was stinging; even moving his eyes was painful. He kept completely still for fear that budging may result in his body crumbling into a million agonized little pieces.

"Um. I can safely say that I've been better."

His teammates offered grimaces of sympathy, with the exception of Finn, who considered himself exempt on account of a swollen face.

Aerrow didn't want to seem pushy, but time was of the essence and he needed Stork to talk. He cleared his throat and tried to redirect the conversation. "So, I had some questions about the caves. Junko said you might have seen some of the tunnels..."

Stork stared at him with a pained and pale face. It looked like he was giving the comment a great deal of thought, when in reality he'd barely heard it. His mind and body were busy dumping on him a merciless summary and reminder of everything that had happened up until that hour. The peaceful ignorance of the just-woken stupor was vanishing, and in its place was nothing but hurt, memories, and a clawing anxiety. His unexpected tirade against Big T had cost him a perfectly fine ear. What had he been _thinking?_ What in Atmos would happen to him when he went back to the mines again? He wasn't even angry at the Talons, he was angry with himself. He was a fool. He was a coward. He was a murderer...

He was going to throw up.

"_Bucket!_" he choked.

Piper had turned to grab it, but the thought of its current contents made her pause. The last thing Stork needed was to come face-to-face with that kind of horror. He didn't look as though he could handle any further emotional trauma.

There wasn't time anyway. The Merb gagged pointlessly, failing to so much as spit. He looked positively miserable. Aerrow frowned and tried again, speaking as he pushed the food and water forward.

"Did you see anything in the tunnels, Stork?"

Stork felt his palms start to sweat at the thought that he might be getting sick with an endless number of potentially fatal and highly contagious viruses, but he was also dying of thirst. He feverishly wiped at the canteen's spout with a mitten and then drank whatever was left of the water.

"I didn't see anything..." he spoke at length, "but at least one of them leads outside. There was a lot of wind coming through it."

Aerrow mulled this over. "Could you smell anything?"

"That would depend on what smells you're thinking of," Stork shivered. "Compared to the caves, this prison cell smells like flowers in springtime."

"Fair enough. But if it's at all possible, I need you try and investigate any tunnels you can."

Stork tensed and twitched, "Me?"

"You can slip away a lot easier than Junko can, Stork." Aerrow was giving him that accusatory stare again. "It won't take long. Just... _wait until the right time_..."

The way Aerrow spoke those last words drove Stork's already wavering spirits right through the floor and deep into the mucky damp of the ground floor sufferers. Piper had thought this silly grudge had long since melted away, and she was not at all pleased to see that Aerrow was still harbouring some lingering resentment toward his pilot.

"All right," she pushed in, "that's enough of that. I'm sure if anyone is capable of learning everything there is to know about his surroundings, it's Stork. There's no one better!"

The dejected Merb gave Piper a nod of thanks. Her words meant little in the long run, but the effort to defend him was much appreciated.

"Can I do anything to help?" Junko asked. He was entirely upbeat and oblivious to the subtle rivalry going on in front of him.

Aerrow felt the need to redeem himself. He spoke to Junko, but his eyes were on Piper. "You can protect Stork, big guy. Make sure he keeps his other ear in tact."

Junko smiled and raised a fist. "Hah! You can count on me!"

Knowing he'd ruined his chances for a proper conversation with Stork, Aerrow resumed chatting with Junko, asking now for details on the other workers and the Talons guarding them, though his eyes occasionally settled on Piper as he spoke.

Quietly, Piper edged along the wall, closer to where Stork was sitting. His head was hanging forward and his eyes were closed behind a black veil of now greasy hair. Piper couldn't really recall a time when he'd looked so filthy, or, no doubt as a direct result, so despondent.

During their adventures as Storm Hawks, the two of them had found that much of the time they each acted as the other's only ally. For Piper, the only female, the boys were a handful and often a nuisance. Stork was older, wiser, an intellectual like herself, and for the most part level-headed. He was someone she could have serious conversations with, someone she could go to for advice. For Stork, Piper provided the same sort of relief from the insanity of teenaged human males; but perhaps more than that, she was a face he could feel the need to fight for. She was an anchor; a reason to stick around. He had never expected to have a family again, or even feel that sort of attachment again, but Piper was definitely family.

She pulled her knees close and blew some fallen hair out of her eyes. "What I'd give for a hot shower right now," she sighed.

Stork thought of hot water and anti-bacterial soap. A smile crept across his face. "A change of clothes would be nice."

"Mmm, scented bath beads."

"Flea and tick shampoo..."

Piper giggled. "And extra-strength deodorant for everyone. I can't imagine it smells worse than this in the caves."

Stork was just glad she wouldn't have to experience it. He wasn't sure how anyone lasted more than a day down there. He was beginning to doubt whether he'd make it to the end of the week.

Piper frowned. She was losing him to his thoughts again. She prodded him in the arm and he jumped.

She gave him a good hard look and some abstract motherly impulse suddenly kicked in. "Hey. Eat something, okay? Otherwise I'll have to worry about you, and I'm a little busy worrying about everything else right now." She gave a dramatic sigh, "You don't want to overwork me, do you?"

Stork held back a sarcastic smile. "The strain of staring at the walls all day must be unimaginable..."

"For your information," Piper replied hotly, "we're fighting Talons in the mornings now. You're welcome to trade places with me, I'd love to go and mine some crystals instead."

The Merb had an ironic look in his eyes. "Oh, give it a few days. I have a feeling a spot will be opening up..."

Aerrow broke in suddenly, taking the food bag out from between them and dumping the last of the rice. Piper's heart sank to see it tossed allover the floor. Getting Stork to eat it now would be mission impossible. Aerrow gave her an apologetic look.

"Er, sorry... The guards are here to take it back, and wouldn't you know it, we're fresh out of clean dishes."

Finn spoke from over Aerrow's shoulder, his gloved hand still massaging his injury. "Uh, dude, there's some Talons here for Stork and Junko too."

Stork's mouth twitched and he caught Piper's eyes again. "Uh, what was that you said about... trading places?"

OoOoO

Piper watched Stork and Junko disappear down the stairwell, followed a few minutes later by the Absolute Zeroes. She waited until the sounds of their footsteps had vanished, and then rounded on Aerrow.

"This has got to _stop_."

He knew what she was talking about, but still tried to play the oblivious-by-means-of-excess-testosterone card. "Stop what?"

Piper glared daggers at him. "Stop blaming Stork, Aerrow. It's killing him! He made a mistake, and you made a mistake. We all made a mistake! You're acting like Stork made us lose on purpose. He thinks he's responsible for everything that happened, and you're encouraging him to think that way!"

Aerrow sat forward, and Finn instinctively put as much space between himself and this confrontation as was physically possible. The Sky Knight looked ready to welcome another fight.

"After all of our training leading up to that day, Piper? He only had to make sure the transmission was right! It was so simple!"

"And all you had to do was the _same thing!_" she snapped back. "You're the leader, Aerrow."

"I know I am! I'm the leader, and I was responsible for thousands of lives that day. I forfeited all of them to save one Merb who never wanted to be a Storm Hawk in the first place!"

Aerrow stopped and turned away. Piper went quiet.

"You know that's not true," she said after a moment. "He could have left any time if he'd wanted to."

"Maybe he was still waiting for something better to come along."

"So what are you saying, then?" she snapped her fingers next to his ear to draw his attention back. "You wish you'd let Dark Ace have him? Have the Condor?"

Aerrow breathed angrily, and then paused to collect himself. "No... of course not. It wouldn't have made a difference anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing..." he shook his head. "Listen, I'll try to let up on him. It just slipped out. I'm angry that everything went wrong, and when I see him it's like a reminder of what happened. I just want to _blame_ someone." He sighed heavily, "I should be blaming myself..."

Piper gave an angry laugh, "No, Aerrow! You've got it all backwards! Don't blame Stork. Don't blame yourself. Blame Dark Ace. Blame the Cyclonians. They're the ones you should be angry at! They're the ones we need to defeat."

He stopped, and then smiled at her. "You're right."

She smiled back. "God, you're so dumb sometimes."

"Well, that's why you're here."

Aerrow had placed a hand on her upper arm without realizing it. Piper was blushing.

Finn couldn't sit by any longer. He interrupted the exchange with loud coughing. "Someone else in the cell here!"

Aerrow snorted and wandered to the outer bars. He could see a number of Talons entering the mouth of the cave below, likely ready to start their nighttime shifts. He could still feel a small trace of resentment toward Stork, but it was all the end result of his own poor leadership. Still, he knew that Piper was right. When all was said and done, the only ones really standing in their way were the Cyclonians. He'd grown so used to winning that the loss was just that much more of an injustice.

"I'll make everything right tomorrow," he muttered. "He'll be fine."

OoOoO

Stork's first journey into the caves had been made in a fog of fear and confusion. The second time was not much different. He was still lost in thought, contemplating what horrors were to come, and wondering why the hell Aerrow kept entrusting him with these plans when he was bound to continue fouling them up.

His mind was going in circles. Oh, how he longed for his happy place...

"Hurry up, Stork!" Junko called from further along the first tunnel, "I wanna make sure I get the same shovel as yesterday."

"They're all the same shovels..." came Stork's absent-minded reply.

It had taken him a few minutes to will his legs to move. Fortunately, the Talons that removed him from the cell had been understanding enough to grant him that moment of wretched coaxing. He was still in agony beyond words, and had not the slightest clue how he was going to participate in anything resembling actual work.

He recalled their introduction to the mines the day before. _'If you have working arms and legs you're of value'_. Those words were coming back to laugh at him now. What was the alternative, he wondered? Would they send him back to his cell with a hot cup of green tea and orders to rest his weary bones?

Oh, he was _so_ going to get stuck on bucket-dumping duty.

Without warning, Stork found himself clobbered from behind. He fell forward with a pitiful yelp, scrabbling in the dirt under the weight of his attacker.

"I'm down!" he croaked, a shaking arm reaching forward at the Wallop ahead. "Run, Junko. Save yourself...!"

"Uh..." Junko stared, and then smiled. "Hi, Suzi-Lu!"

The Blizzarian stepped off of the fallen Merb and pulled Stork from the ground into a crushing hug. He tensed, trying hard to stifle a scream that was doubling as both the result of cracking joints and every last bit of breath escaping his lungs. He was preparing to call her off when he came to the horrifying realization that Suzi-Lu was crying.

Caught in one of the worst positions a man could ever find himself, Stork struggled for the right words while also struggling to breathe. "Um. Is everything... okay?"

"I just had to thank ya, there, for this mornin'," she sniffled. "For defendin' me like that, eh? You didn't have to. I never seen such a gentleman. You really gave that hoser what-for!"

Stork was beginning to realize how Blizzarians could take such punishment. They were definitely a lot stronger than they looked. He choked under the pressure, "It was... nothing. _Really_..."

She let him go and swiped at her eyes. Stork enjoyed the renewed sensation of every molecule in his body complaining at once. If this was the reward for chivalry, he was going to think twice about defending helpless lasses next time around.

"Well I won't forget it, eh? You're a good guy there, Stork."

He forced an awkward smile as she passed him by, finishing her trek to their work area. Junko laughed for the sake of laughing and followed after her a moment later. Stork was left standing with the two remaining Zeroes.

The blonde Zero rubbed his chin. "I think she's got a crush on you, eh?"

Stork rubbed his bruised ribs. "You're telling me..."

He took advantage of the Blizzarian entourage in order to avoid being seen by Big T, should the big oaf be prowling somewhere nearby, and found his place in the darkest corner, closest to the windy tunnel. He made a half-hearted effort to lift a pickaxe, and set his yellow eyes to their task of staring at the wall.

If only a glare could bore holes in stone, he'd have been freed hours ago.

The evening went by in much the same way as it had the day before. Junko hacked away at the cave, building something of a tunnel of his own, finding many crystals along the way, and inventing a number of absurd working songs to pass the time. The overall mood was much more restrained since Big T's intervention, though to their relief, the head Talon was inexplicably absent from what they'd understood was usually a daily patrol.

The lucky streak continuing, Stork found that his rant against the head Talon had earned him an unspoken respect among the other workers. Each time he felt himself ready to collapse, his post was surrounded by busy miners and hidden from the Talons on duty. He managed to make it a lot longer into the shift than he'd expected with these brief breaks, protected on all sides from interference.

But by the wee hours of the morning, his body had taken enough. He dropped the pickaxe (who amongst his pickaxe brothers, in the hands of Stork, was really living the easy life). The world around him dimmed and dropped away as he fainted, straight back into a pile of red dirt.

He wasn't out long enough for the others to take notice. For a few minutes his head swam with visions of fire and swarms of insects and bodies falling from the clouds. One by one, fleets of burning skimmers became shimmering stars against the deep night sky. They twinkled; unmoving, permanent reminders of his failure. But this starry sky was only an illusion; Stork realized his eyes were open and he was staring at the ceiling of the large cavern, covered with sparkling blue Blocker Crystals.

As luck would have it, this simulated sky also boasted the occasional falling star. Stork rolled sideways just in time to miss another one of the crystals dislodging, tumbling down, and pummeling the dirt where he'd been laying. He sat up, held his head with both hands to keep it from spinning free of his neck, and then reached for the crystal.

Again, she was on it. Like a ghost, the Terradon child sprang from the shadows and grabbed the crystal right out of his grasping fingers. Stork sat there, dumbfounded, his hand remaining curled as if the crystal were still within it.

Realization of what happened finally hit him. His face twisted into a scowl. "Oh, you're not getting away with that again..."

He scrambled to his feet and caught sight of the little girl as she rounded a corner into the same tunnel as before. Stork shot after her. Aerrow wanted him to explore a tunnel? Fine then, he'd explore this one.

As if by magic, the other miners closed ranks again, making it impossible for the guards to see the Merb as he ran along the wall of the cavern. Like a flock of birds that knows by instinct where to turn next, the miners worked in unison.

_Another tidbit of useful information for Aerrow_, Stork thought. Maybe the Sky Knight would let up and stop sending him on insane, deadly missions for a day or two.

He turned into the tunnel and followed it. He could no longer see the girl, but he could definitely smell her. You didn't empty waste buckets for a living and not carry with you some recognizable aroma. The tunnel broke off into three separate paths, but he had no doubt that he was following the correct route. Now he could hear her ahead, and see a bright light growing along the walls as he moved forward. Did the tunnel lead outside? Was it later in the morning than he'd thought?

Stork slowed to a halt, his eyes widening. The Terradon girl was cornered now and cowering, shivers running through her. Just behind her terrified form was a sight to behold. Something that might have easily caused Piper to fall down on her knees and weep. He swallowed and stared.

It was easily the biggest stash of crystals Stork had ever seen.

The little girl gazed up at him with watery eyes, bottom lip trembling. The latest crystal was still clutched in her stubby fingers. She sniffled.

"Please don't tell."

--

_I'm totally going to tell._

_Sorry again for the talky-talk-talk. We will have action again soon!_


End file.
